Melancholia (2011)

Directed by: Lars Von Trier
Written by: Lars Von Trier
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Udo Kier

After his love-it-or-hate-it meditation on horror films with Antichrist, Lars Von Trier is back. Everyone's favorite pseudo-Nazi sympathizer has a follow-up to his infamous Self-Inflicted Female Genital Mutilation movie. Some will rant and rave that these elements should not be mentioned, that I should review this movie fully on its own merits. But I can’t ignore them. They were mentioned before, during and after its Cannes premiere and they will be mentioned again. The brilliance of Melancholia is that it rises fully beyond these comments. It is a fully realized look at human nature at its extremes — creating the best and most beautiful film of 2011.

Melancholia is divided into two parts that explore the end of the world as seen by two sisters. The first part entitled “Justine” (played by Kristen Dunst) begins at the end of her wedding to Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) with the couple's arrival to the reception held at Justine's brother-in-law John's (Kiefer Sutherland) estate. Upon her arrival she notices an ominous red star that distracts her. What begins as a joyous, albeit ordinary, wedding begins to change as Justine becomes more and more removed from the proceedings. As Justine's depression becomes apparent so do the cracks in their family’s relationships. Her womanizing, charming father (John Hurt) and frantic hippie mother (Charlotte Rampling) are left to make sense of two competing ideologies which never quite come together.

As the wedding party dies down, Von Trier shifts the entire dynamics of this scenario and turns Melancholia into an art house disaster movie in the second part titled “Claire” (Justine’s sister, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg). The innocuous red star is in fact a planet called Melancholia that is supposed to pass by Earth creating an once-in-a-lifetime view, but posing little threat to our planet. Coinciding with Melancholia’s drive-by is Justine’s depressive episode, which escalates to the point that she must stay with Claire on John’s estate along with their son. Justine is convinced that Earth is meant to die and that Melancholia will hit Earth. John believes that it will merely pass us by. Claire is in the middle, torn between wanting to believe her husband and being scared by Justine’s assured nature.

Von Trier proves his strength as a director by pitting the audience in between these two opposing possibilities. Von Trier teases out little clues throughout the final acts to make the characters and the audience engage on deep levels and deals with the ramifications of our world ending far better than the Michael Bays and Jerry Bruckheimers of the world. By bluntly asking, “Does it matter if the Earth ends?” he forces the characters to show their true colors with both powerful and heartbreaking conclusions.

Melancholia is a great deal more accessible than Antichrist. It is funny, moving, sad and wondrous, and feels true. It is a depiction of a family, warts and all, as the world around them crumbles. It is a gamble to play out these scenes, but the shocking nature of them is due, in part, to our belief that all the good characters will be saved and all the bad ones will be punished. Von Trier pushes us to face the fact that those beliefs are fraudulent. Don’t see Melancholia to unwind and escape — it will engage you even if you don’t like it.

Before Kristen Dunst’s facial reactions to Von Trier’s Nazi comments made her a viral sensation, she was killing it with the performance of her career. There are none of her trademark quirks and intonations. She does the near impossible: She makes Justine’s depression feel real to the audience. It’s no wonder that she won Best Actress for her role at Cannes; this character is far less showy than Natalie Portman’s Nina in Black Swan, but Dunst shows us a real person in the midst of unimaginable darkness.

Keifer Sutherland and Alexander Skarsgård play out of character. Udo Kier is an uppity wedding planner, and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Claire is hanging on by her own thin thread.

Melancholia is amazing. From the cinematography and the script to the conclusion, Von Trier plays with our expectations and leaves his audience reeling from the startling brutality and tenderness of human nature.

Rating: (5 out of 5):