Review of Melancholia (2011) by Jayakrishnan R — 30 Aug 2014

85%.

Watched this on 31/8/14.

Melancholia's first half has a lousy, stupid and boring dramatic touch which lacks solidity. The only pleasures are the occasional visual spurs. I didn't believe that I would like this film when I was watching it's first half. The only thing that glued me into the screen was the Kristen Dunst's tits which flashed more occasionally throughout for no particular reason. However, once it got to the second half, it became just yet another film. The dramatic pace got overthrown by science fiction, mystery and tension. The film has quite well crafted visuals, but the performances are mostly stale and uninteresting. Unlike what the critics say, I did not find anything interesting about Dunst's acting, it was just usual. Usually films have good first halves and things go bad in the second half, but Melancholia is a rarest of rare cases where the opposite actually took place. It's first part 'Justine' felt pointless and the depression of the character that the film shows felt more or less unexplained and unsatisfactory. Part 2, 'Claire' doesn't have much for the central character, but it's apocalyptic and scientific touch along with fine visuals and direction proved to be mind blowing.