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| Melancholia: The Ultimate Depressive's Validation Fantasy put to film. by Mischief Maker 12/12/2011, 10:49pm PST | ||||
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| I didn't like this movie, and according to comments in reply to other reviews, this movie wasn't for me since I never suffered from clinical depression. Apparently if I did, I would think this fucking movie had a happy ending.
I have 2 theories about what Lars Von Trier was trying to accomplish with this movie. One was the ultimate Mary Sue story for people with depression. The film weighs in at a bladder-punishing 2 and a half hours in part because it's two complete arthouse films crammed into one, complete with titlecards in between. The first movie is one where Dunst is having an opulent wedding reception in a gigantic mansion estate owned by her sister's family. It starts out wonderful and fairytale perfect, but soon it becomes clear that Dunst is suffering from depression and just putting on a show and by the end of the film she has ruined the wedding and the marriage is off. Except she isn't really in the wrong because, with the exception of her sister and her pre-pubescent nephew, no one at the wedding really cares about her. Her mother and father are both hilariously horrible people who abandon her every time she tries to confide in them, (her father can't even remember her name!) her brother in law just threw the wedding so he could show off the 18 hole golf course on his estate, her asshole boss just came to the wedding to get an advertisement tagline idea out of her (because she just wouldn't be a mentally ill person if she wasn't also an artistic genius) even her new husband is just a dolt who is only interested in boning her. So in a way she is 100% justified in ruining the entire event, especially since her nephew was asleep through the whole mess and wasn't hurt by her actions at all. She also notices a strange star in the sky and is complimented by her Astronomer brother in law at her observational powers, setting the stage for the 2nd movie. Film 2 takes place a few months later, Dunst's character is now completely crippled by depression and is coming over to her sister and brother-in-law's mansion for a visit. Her sister is at her wit's end trying to get Dunst's character to even do simple things like eat and bathe. The nephew still completely adores Dunst and is not bothered in the least by her antics. Meanwhile, that star Dunst discovered in the first movie turned out to be a gigantic rocky planet (The titular Melancholia) that was hidden behind the sun for centuries, but now is on a slingshot collision course for Earth. Her rich Astronomer brother-in-law says that the planet will fly by earth but won't collide and he has the science to back it up. Dunst, on the other hand, just knows it will. Furthermore, it turns out that Dunst, in true Mary Sue fashion, is right about everything. Does she have psychic powers? Nah, she's just the center of the universe. Sure enough, when it becomes clear that Melancholia is gonna hit the earth, the Astronomer brother-in-law who has been putting on a brave face for everyone the whole movie is the first to commit suicide. The sister who was trying to be the support for Dunst with less and less patience turns into a weepy bag of slop. Then, even though she is supposed to be floored by neurotransmitter imbalance, Dunst gets to be the strong one giving support and talking sense to her sister. I guess vindication was all she needed to get her seratonin levels back in the green. There's even this odd part where the sane sister suggests they go out on the patio and have a glass of wine together as a final dignified farewell and Dunst shits all over her plan as a pointless gesture, but then comes up with her own plan of putting together a stick teepee and holding hands together on the lawn, which arguably is even more pointless and undignified. The the planet hits earth and everybody dies. The end. Daydream Nation wrote: So I guess the moral of the film is that people with depression are horrible selfish assholes who would rather quelch their bad feelings in a horrific disaster that would silence every living thing on the planet than take their fucking meds. Or as Jim Norton puts it, "MEEEEEEEEEE!" My other theory is that Von Trier really wanted to film Kirsten Dunst nude, and so crafted an oscar-bait crazy person role for her that would require a gratiutous nude scene for "Artistic" purposes. Proof for this is how Dunst's cleavage is dead center in every single shaky handheld camera shot in the movie. |
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Melancholia: The Ultimate Depressive's Validation Fantasy put to film. by 12/12/2011, 10:49pm PST  Re: Melancholia: The Ultimate Depressive's Validation Fantasy put to film. by 12/13/2011, 12:33am PST Yes. He's still dead wrong about Drive, though by 12/13/2011, 7:23pm PST |
