What is it with filmmakers and nihilism these days?
Melancholia, written and directed by Lars von Trier, is another in a long line of films pimping an oversimplified view of reality paraded as thoughtful art.
The movie is divided into two parts. The first covers Justines’s (Kirsten Dunst) wedding reception and her abnormal reaction to what most people would consider one of the happiest days of their life.
The second part of the movie starts the day after the wedding and follows the response of Justine, her sister Claire and brother John’s (Kiefer Sutherland) attempts to deal emotionally with the threat of an approaching planet predicted to collide with and end all life on earth.
The message in the movie is found in the film’s implicit critique of the three characters’ responses to the impending doom.
Claire responds with fear. As a result, her husband John (Sutherland) is constantly trying to protect her from reality. “Have you been online again [reading about the approaching planet]?” he asks. John is unrealistically hopeful, naive even, in assuring his wife that the planet will pass without incident and that “scientists aren’t always right.” Continue reading “Movie Review: Meloncholia”