Hold my hand. Close your eyes. Melancholia approaches.
To say that Lars von Trier’s latest film, Melancholia, is about the end of the world is to say that Star Wars is about space. You’d be grasping the surface’s elements, yes, but don’t dismiss the world beneath.
Melancholia follows Justine, played by the luminous Kirsten Dunst, through her wedding day, her collapse into depression, and her rise to ‘sanity’ towards the film’s close. It also explores Justine’s relationship with her sister, Claire, played by Charolette Gainsbourg. To round it off, von Trier adds in a third major player: Melancholia, the looming planet that threatens to crash into Earth.
The film is divided into three parts: A prologue, ‘Part I- Justine’, and ‘Part II- Claire.’ The prologue—lasting for about ten minutes—is incredibly effective at setting von Trier’s stage. These ten minutes are certainly the most visually arresting and fantastical of the film. It focuses mostly on Justine, illustrating her struggle with depression, while foreshadowing the imminence of Earth’s end. The most striking frame consists of Dunst in wedding gown and garb, struggling through threads of black, leaden yarn. Each step takes an eternity. Von Trier sets the prologue to Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” which successfully instigates an air of epic tragedy.
Parts I and II essentially bring von Trier’s prologue and put it in a setting of reality. What starts as a normal wedding reception quickly turns to a party from Hell (“Enjoy it while it lasts; I myself hate marriages,” toasts Justine’s mother). Additionally, Justine is struggling with her flaring depression; she makes a habit of leaving her groom to take a bath, or say, enjoy the company of another man. But the fires of Hell don’t really get brewing until Part II. Justine’s depression has reached unforeseen heights—she cries into her meatloaf, exclaiming, “It tastes like ashes”—, and uncharacteristically, Claire struggles to maintain sanity herself. With the threat of Melancholia days away, Claire assumes the worst and is on the brink of a breakdown. Her millionaire husband, played blandly by Kiefer Sutherland, approaches the situation scientifically, soberly claiming that a crash-course between Earth and Melancholia is merely myth conjured from pessimist bloggers. He is, of course, mistaken.
World’s end is heavy subject matter in and of itself, but von Trier really lays it on. He tackles the nature of depression, greed, neglectful parenting, unrequited love, the loss of innocence, and the ever-looming question of what’s the point to it all? What is the meaning of life? Some of the film’s thematic elements may come across as common, cliché even, but von Trier can seemingly do no wrong. Each arising conflict—starting with the bride and her groom running late to their own reception, and ending with the climactic death to Earth and all her inhabitants—has a sense of importance and urgency, enrapturing the viewer from start to finish.
Expect some awards attention for Melancholia this Oscar season, particularly for Ms. Dunst. Already winner for Best Actress at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, hers is an astounding, illustrative performance of the human psyche—this year’s Black Swan. As Justine, Dunst doesn’t just rock the core of the character, but of the audience as well.