This movie is painful, gloomy, and dark... and yet, like the other Lars Von Trier movie I've seen (Breaking the Waves), it is somehow also a beautiful film. The movie manages to capture the experience of depression and internal suffering in a way I have rarely, if ever, seen on film. Although my experience with depression has been very mild compared to some of my good friends, I still identified very strongly with Kirsten Dunst's character and found myself almost unable to breathe in a few of the scenes involving her extreme... well, melancholia.
Aside from the part of the movie that deals with depression, however, I was blown away by von Trier's portrayal of the end of the world. I'm fascinated with apocalyptic stories, but so many movies bring in the element of adventure and escape. I've had a lot of dreams about the end of the world, and they always work like this... occasional desperate attempts to escape, but the underlying knowledge that, no, nothing is going to change this, and we might as well just sit and wait for the end to come. It is a dark, heartbreaking story... but I loved it. Obviously I need to check out more of von Trier's work, as both this and Breaking the Waves fascinated and haunted me. 4.5 stars.
Best Part: The opening. I very literally could not look away. I kept meaning to go get something to drink, and I couldn't stop watching.
Worst Part: The first half of the movie does go on longer than it probably needs to. I got a bit antsy.
Flickchart: #363, below What's Eating Gilbert Grape and above An Education.
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