Review of Melancholia (2011) by Nathan C — 07 Sep 2012

Like the protagonist, "Melancholia" is... meh. Perhaps the strangest -- and certainly the bleakest -- art-house movie I've seen. With loads of ambition, many shortcomings, and some rewards for persistence, it's a flawed yet enthralling piece that's love-it-or-hate-it material.

Justine and her newlywed husband arrive at a castle where her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew live. There, they celebrate the wedding reception... which takes up an entire hour in the film. After some weird events involving her come about, her fairy-tale life is ruined and she hits bottom. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is primed to collide with Earth. We already know it will, but, along with the characters, we are left to wait and dread every moment until the inevitable, inescapable conclusion.

Mr. von Trier has a penchant for screwing with my head on how to review this. He also has a knack of providing plenty of ammunition to both the film's lovers and its detractors. But, at least he knew where he was going with this, even if nobody else does. von Trier the director constructs an operatic master plan, which has been manifested no matter its degree of success. However, von Trier the writer's lack of narrative continuity and inability to gauge how much is too much disturbs me... It's like his two different functions are cancelling out his intentions in both roles.

Beautiful, gloomy visuals and a great musical homage to Wagner enhances an already dark, melancholic atmosphere. Kirsten Dunst's performance wasn't very compelling, considering it was an award-winning one. But the grossly underused supporting cast nicely holds it together. The whole "planetary collision being an allegory for depression" schtick is far-fetched on the surface, but provokes some psychological thought. The art-house approach is a double-edged sword. As refreshing as it is to see a unconventional, non-Hollywood disaster flick that prefers to go deeper, it can tend to get pretentious and be drained of the entertainment value that its big, dumb Hollywood counterparts have to make up for their flaws. However, aside from the somewhat engaging first hour, the majority of the movie that's chunked in between the epic intro and the crazy ending is boring and sort of plods along its death trail. I will say that it does deliver in being dark and depressing though... which it aimed to be in the first place.

As long as you don't mind the existentialism and futilism of it all, this makes for some viewing that's not to be missed, at least out of interest for serious cinephiles.