Review of Melancholia (2011) by Chris N — 24 Jul 2012

Watching Melancholia is watching a train wreck in bullettime. Only the train is full of people you can't save, and the image of their immolated ruin is burned brightly in your mind, haunting you for eternity.

Act I: Justine is nearly an hour, which is 50 minutes too long suffering the frighful downward spiral of an initially sypathetic young woman's self-destruction. In this act, Kirsten Dunst craps on everyone around her at her own wedding reception, destroying her career, marriage, and relationship with her mother and sister. Everything she built, burned to ashes, foreshadowing the destruction of the world. It would be difficult to be sympathetic to Justine's choices and fate, were it not for the fact that she was obviously mentally ill-severely so-and disguised under her manicured veneer.

What is even more difficult to watch is the fate of her sister, Claire. In the 2nd act, Claire struggles with the terrestrial approach of the rogue planet Melancholia.

Despite her husband's scientific faith, studiousness and confident 'near miss' theory regarding the collision course of Melancholia, she remains doubtful. Although Claire's sadness is underscored twice in the film-when she tells Justine how much she hates her sometimes-when the planet comes closest, we feel the final infinity of Claire's sadness.

This off-kilter film is as haunting as it is beautiful and well composed. And likewise, I hate this movie for being that.