Writer: Lars Von Trier
Genre: Drama/Science Fiction/Idiocy
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When Melancholia debuted at Cannes in May,
the film made a big explosion, not only for what it is, but because its
director Lars Von Trier said in a press conference that he is a Nazi and he
understands Hitler. I think it’s important to separate the person from the
artist, but in the case of Melancholia
the artist is almost as horrendous as the person. The Cannes Film Festival
kicked Von Trier out, the first time in history someone was expelled from
Cannes, but his film became a tremendous success. I have never seen any of Von
Trier’s previous work so I judged Melancholia
strictly on its own merit, and frankly, I was not impressed.
The
film opens with a prologue of apocalyptic images, imaginatively shot and foreshadowing the inevitable fate that will befall earth
at the end of the movie. A giant planet called Melancholia is hurdling towards
earth and if it hits, all life on earth will end. Von Trier chooses to show us
earth’s destruction in the first 15 minutes, which takes away the suspense
factor of wondering if Melancholia will actually hit earth, but clearly Von
Trier isn’t concerned with suspense because he is telling a story about two
sisters and how they deal with earth’s impending doom. I liked the prologue –
the next two hours, not so much.
The
movie is told in two parts, each named after one of the two sisters, played by
Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who don’t look anything like sisters).
Dunst won the Best Actress award at Cannes but I think her performance is
decent at best, with a lot of overacting and comatose staring. Gainsbourg out
acts Dunst but is never really given a chance to shine because of Von Trier’s
sloppy direction.
Part
one centers around Justine’s (Dunst) wedding party, put on by Claire
(Gainsbourg) and her rich husband John (Kiefer Sutherland). The groom is
Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), and Michael and Justine trounce into the party
two hours late after being stuck in a limo. Claire is angry with Justine for
being late to her own party, but once she arrives the bizarreness begins. It
turns out that while Claire is the sane, levelheaded sister, Justine suffers
from severe depression and is basically a nut job. In the span of the wedding
party, Michael declares her love for Justine, Justine gets a job promotion,
Justine leaves the party to pee on a golf course, Justine quits her job, has
sex with another man, takes a bath, and finally Michael packs his bag and ends
the marriage after one night. “What did you expect?” is all Justine can say. Almost
nothing about the wedding scene makes any sense. Characters are not developed
and the incredibly strange family dynamic is never really understood.
After
the torturous wedding party, comes part two, which involves Claire, her
husband, her son, and Justine hanging out in a big house, acting depressed and
waiting to see if the world will end or not. The audience is forced to wait
with them, and the wait is long, tedious, and boring. Claire is scared about Melancholia,
John tries to convince her the planet won’t hit earth, but Justine claims that
“she knows things” and that “there is only life on earth, and not for long.”
Eventually John kills himself when he realizes earth is doomed. Justine says
mean things to her sister and Claire is sad. Claire’s son never seems to care
that his dad is dead and that he is about to die as well. Finally, after what
seems like an eternity of long, hand held shaky shots of the sisters looking
depressed, and Kirsten Dunst lying naked in the woods for no apparent reason,
Melancholia hits earth, there is an explosion, and the movie ends. Thank god.
Like
Terrence Malick’s film released earlier this year The Tree of Life, Von Trier’s Melancholia
is an overlong, pretentious snooze fest that thinks it’s much more important
and meaningful than it actually is. Malick and Von Trier are both directors
with strong visions and audacious aspirations, but they both seem to have
forgotten that form does not make a successful movie when there is no
substance.
I
think hand held cameras can work marvelously – they don’t in Melancholia. Instead of giving the movie
a real life feel, it simply makes the audience nauseous. Many critics have
praised the films “beauty,” but all I saw was ugliness and some HD shots of a big
lawn and horses. Richard Wagner’s operatic score repeats and repeats to the
point where I almost wanted to cut my ears off upon hearing the same
melodramatic tune being played over and over again. Maybe Von Trier realized
the audience wouldn’t know what to feel unless he added an overdone, obnoxious
musical score to accompany the overdone, obnoxious images onscreen.
Melancholia is disjointed, incoherent,
and unintentionally laughable. Von Trier may have an artistic vision, but he is
certainly not a good storyteller, at least with this film. Some people will
love it, some people will hate it, there will be many who don’t really know
what to think. Hopefully the Academy will see Melancholia for the arrogant piece of trash that it is, and we
won’t have to worry about anyone involved with it taking home golden statues.
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