Were the World Mine is a difficult movie to define. It’s often touted as a musical, but there aren’t quite enough songs to match the expectations this conjures up. Instead the film is more of a strange fantasy that occasionally feels inspired to break into song. Based on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Director Tom Gustafson does a fine job of creating a dream-like aura, but does the film live up to the hype?
The story centers around Timothy (played by openly gay Tanner Cohen) who suffers the usual amount of teasing and bullying from his peers because of his sexuality. With the encouragement of puckish drama teacher Ms. Tebbit, Timothy discovers his love for singing and acting, and more importantly, a magical flower that can turn anyone gay. Not only does he use it to convert Jonathan, the athletic object of his desires, but the majority of the town as well. Occasionally the barriers of reality become even more blurred by musical numbers performed on beautiful and elaborately arranged stage sets.
All of this sounds like a recipe for success, and it comes so very close, but there’s something missing. The songs are passable and the visuals are stunning, but there is a lack of depth to the characters. The town is generically homophobic and too much time is given to Timothy’s mother and her own struggles with her boss; a rich, superficial, martini sipping diva who would undoubtedly be a fag hag but is oddly portrayed as a religious conservative. The tone of the film tends to meander as well. It’s not quite funny enough to be called a comedy, and doesn’t delve deep enough into its own concept to be thought provoking. Luckily there is plenty of eye candy to detract from these flaws, as the students of an entire boys school pair up and start making out.
Had more time been given to Timothy and Jonathan, and some of the extraneous characters trimmed, Were the World Mine could have been a masterpiece. As it stands, it is still worthy of seeing, if only for the set designs and the Pierre and Gilles inspired imagery. Average though it might be, I plan on watching it again someday in the hopes that my appreciation for it grows.
*update* This film was unique enough that I decided to buy it, even though the first viewing left me somewhat cold. I’m glad I gave it another chance because I enjoyed it much more the second time around. I understand now why the main gay couple is more in the background, since the point of the plot is for the straight townsfolk to experience the ups and downs of being gay, including unreciprocated feelings.
The songs are also much better than I remembered, namely because I discovered that the 5.1 soundtrack is ineptly mixed. The songs sound flat and muddled, even on a sound system that can handle six channels. I’ve had this problem with both the German and UK release, and assume the same is true for the US release as well. If you watch this film, make sure to choose the 2.0 stereo soundtrack. This isn’t the default setting but it sounds much better, at least where the music is concerned. Hopefully this film will receive better treatment if a blu-ray release comes out, since the picture quality could be improved too. Despite all the technical problems, I found this film absolutely charming when giving it a second chance. Check it out!