gloomy is right.

if you’re just reading a synopsis of the 1999 film ‘gloomy sunday’, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a horror movie, as it is the story of a song written in budapest on the cusp of world war ii that inexplicably causes a great many people to commit suicide. i turned it off before the end because i didn’t want to do the same. it was pretty boring.

from the start i was wary, as the framed flashback was fairly heavy-handed, and more than a touch obvious. the story plunges in way too fast, and the characters are one-dimensional. the waitress is pretty, the pianist is melancholy, the restaurant owner is jewish, and the nazi is bad. the main conflict is a ridiculously polite love triangle, until the war thankfully steps in and takes the focus off. there is some laughable dialogue, such as when one nazi says to another “forget the final solution, tonight’s about the beef rolls.” for the waitress’ birthday, the pianist composes a song, which incidentally is the same ‘gloomy sunday’ recorded by ella fitzgerald. apparently when it was actually composed, there was an urban legend running around claiming that it caused a few suicides, but as the nazis were steamrolling across europe, it’s hard to believe that it was just the song. although, the composer did throw himself out of his apartment window in 1968. there are a few scenes of half-hearted passion and a picnic that predictably turns into a ménage a trois, and then, immediately after the waitress has sung the words to the song for the first time, the pianist shoots himself with a nazi gun. and frankly, that’s when i threw in the towel myself.

my final thought is this – it could have been strange and interesting and eerie, but it just didn’t make the effort. maybe there was an explanation at the end, but I didn’t care enough to wait around and find out.