Melancholia 2011 Movie Review

The 2011 Cannes Film Festival crowd pleaser, "Melancholia", is Lars Von Trier's (Dancer in the Dark and Dogville) follow-up to 2009's horrific "Antichrist." Like "Antichrist" its main focus is visually expressing extreme emotions. "Antichrist" was essentially a horror film dealing with loss and a broken marriage. "Melancholia" is a science fiction film dealing with depression and the beginning of a marriage. Kirsten Dunst (Spiderman Trilogy and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) headlines an amazing cast that includes Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Science of Sleep), Kiefer Sutherland (The Lost Boys), and Alexander Skarsgard (HBO's True Blood).

It's hard to watch this film and not be sucked in by its beauty and visual perfection. At times you see the characters and scenery slowed down almost to a stand still (extreme slow motion) it's at these moments that the pristine beauty really shines through. These visuals directly contrast the emotions dealt with in the film. The main focus of "Melancholia" is Kirsten Dunst's character dealing with an incapacitating depression.  So it contains very very few moments of happiness.

Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of this woman struggling with depression is perfect. This is her movie. Much of the movie takes place at her characters wedding reception. She is forced to put on the facade of happiness during some of her weakest moments. It is easy to look at her with disgust at times, but if you look without judging eyes then you see that she is just a victim of her psychological problem.

"Melancholia" is more of a character study then a traditional story based drama, but it does technically have an overall science fictioney plot. The planet of Melancholia is traveling toward the Earth. It is unknown if the planet will pass Earth or collide and cause the end of the world. This aspect of the story was uninteresting and unnecessary. Just watching the interactions of the family members and all of their struggles were enough. The film has a two hour and ten minute running time which feels at least thirty minutes too long. The first half pulled me in immediately, but much of the second half had me staring at my watch hoping for the film to wrap up. When it finally concluded I didn't feel that the ending was worth the time or emotional investment.

The cinematography and Kirsten Dunst's performance might be enough to recommend this film, but be warned, it has its problems.

Rating: 6.9