Review of Melancholia (2011) by Victor T — 09 Jul 2017

Justine and Michael are celebrating their weeding surrounded by all of their love ones. However two factors threaten the happiness of the festivity: Justine seems to have second thoughts about Michael and the planet Melancholia is heading towards Earth, threatening all life on Earth.

Lars Von Trier has been a director I´ve avoided since I saw "Dancer in the Dark", a movie I really liked but it also managed to fuck me up for an entire week, but out of morbid curiosity I decided to give him another chance. "Melancholia" counts with solid acting with Dunst delivering her best performance to date, the visuals are beautiful, the main characters are quite disgusting (this is a Lars Von Trier film after all...) but they are quite interesting, fantastic use of music (starting with the use of Wagner in that gorgeous opening sequence), Von Trier´s trademark themes work so well in this story that they will undeniably hit close to home, the mixture of tragicomedy and sci-fi is seamless, and despite what most moviegoers say, the pacing is spot on due to the nature/themes of the film. However, despite its numerous virtues "Melancholia" is a flawed film but the biggest one has to be the amount of subplots left hanging. Outside of Dunst and Gainsbourg (and arguably Sutherland) the rest of the characters that are stablished in Part One are completely thrown out the window in Part Two, even when the story demanded the return of some of them.

"Melancholia" is a beautiful, atmospheric and masterfully made film that's also a little hard to watch at times. It makes the audience feel uncomfortable but it is also endlessly fascinating. If you can handle ´depressive films´ and have the patience to handle slow pacing, this is a fascinating film that you should see at least once.