The Case for Melacholic Meteoroids

In a week where I saw the Hollywood treatment of the end of the world in Armageddon, it was very sobering to see how Lars von Trier handles the same kind of subject.  Not for him an asteroid that can be cleft in twain by a well placed nuclear explosion.  Melancholia is instead a planet bigger than the Earth, hurtling towards us, threatening our very existence.

Odd to think that this peril is actually the backdrop to the bipolar character of Justine, played with incredible intensity by Kirsten Dunst.  After a very operatic opening, not dissimilar to parts of the Tree of Life (and all the slow, ponderous imagery that invokes), Melancholia focuses on Justine's marriage to her blond suitor (a very un-vampiric Alexander Skarsgård).  Her sister Claire (a mildly pathetic Charlotte Gainsbourg) has put together an elaborate affair, inviting family members who can barely tolerate each other and workmates who seem determined to work Justine to the bone, but all that matters little: Justine is pretty much the instrument of her own destruction and the initial euphoria of the wedding slowly fades as life weighs heavily upon her.

The second part of the film, focusing on Claire, brings the depressed Justine and the impending global catastrophe together.  Keifer Sutherland, as Claire’s husband, is fairly calm considering his usual 24 hecticity, and his performance is all the more gripping because of it.

The merit of Lars von Trier films may elude many, and his comments of late have been… unwise, to say the least, but there can be little doubt that he does manage to elicit some amazing performances from his cast.  This film also doesn’t stick to his usual dogme style, but it is pretty hard to do so considering the natural disaster bent of the movie.  Indeed, the special effects are incredible, if a bit slow (tedious?), with a scene with two moons casting their own shadows over a deserted golf course sticks in my mind as an image of incredible beauty.

But, while beautiful, Melancholia is slow (of course) and the characters are not terribly sympathetic.  Dunst’s performance may be astonishing, but there are certain times I just wanted to slap her and scream at her to just get in the goddamned bath.

 

Understanding was not my friend that night, but it did not stop me from enjoying the film.  Of course, the fact I was viewing this film in the new mini-Embassy cinemas constructed underneath the main hall was a delight in itself – even if the architect put the aisle in the middle of the room, thus robbing anyone of the chance of seeing any film in that prized “pole” position.  Despite that small fault, I can't wait to see another movie there soon.

Verdict: That Melancholia will not be to everyone's taste should not really be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about von Trier's work.  But if you  don't mind a film with slow, brooding intensity, with some amazing performances, and with a threat to the Earth that a handful of Americans in a spaceship have very little chance of avoiding, then this might be a film for you.  7.5 Prozac pills out of 10.