Melancholia

I know this is an older film but i didn't see it until recently.  I didn't even hear of it until after it was no longer in theaters.  I love science fiction and i tend to appreciate disaster flicks.  I knew this movie was going to be different but i wasn't prepared for just how different.  The film is divided into three parts: artistic morphing photographs that foreshadow the rest of the film, a wedding reception, and what happens when Melancholia flies by.


The first sequence is painfully slow and incredibly morbid. The depiction of depression that is provided here and later in the film is nothing at all like the depression i have personally experienced.  I tend to dislike grandiose, full of itself, elitest art like this.  It is art, certainly, and beautiful even while it is ugly and annoying.  I have difficulty putting into words what it makes me feel exactly.  But the slow as molasses speed made it even more unbearable to watch even more than the content.



Kirsten Dunst is one of those actresses that reminds me of the sister i grew up with.  That was not the case in this film because of how vastly different her personality was to what she has been in previously.  One thing i noticed immediately is that Justine's descriptions of the way her depression made her feel only made sense if she already knew that Melancholia was coming.  This was even more apparent in the third part and was eventually confirmed.  No one else seemed to know what was going to happen, but her actions only made sense if that was the case.  Furthermore, it seemed like everyone was emotionally blackmailing her and expecting way too much all at the same time, which is especially inexcusable on a woman's wedding day.  It wasn't her fault that she was late for her reception...it was her sister who had hired the limo and planned the grandiose wedding without any input from Justine.  Her father and mother behaved horribly and were not there for her emotionally, there was no support at all.  Her boss was a complete jerk, who expects someone to work on their wedding day after they've quit?  I am not excusing the Justine's behavior, the bride should be available to her guests, but it is perfectly understandable why she kept retreating.


Claire's depression in the third part of the film is also understandable though her actions are less so.  She's reacting with fear, as most of us would, though where she thought she was running away to is less certain.  What i don't really understand is why Justine was so depressed at her reception if she is happy that Melancholia is going to take everyone out.  Maybe she hadn't figured that out yet and Melancholia provides a certain relief.  Maybe her original depression was in response to others rather than Melancholia.  Regardless, there is not much about this film that makes any kind of sense, not John's overly-cheerful hopefulness that turns into sudden suicide, not Claire's abandonment of her son, not the magic cave that everyone knows isn't going to help a single thing.


Finally...the science.  Why would electrical lines be emitting any sort of energy when they had been down for days?  Why would a gas giant pass the sun and two other planets but be pulled back by Earth?  It would make far more sense if the sun eventually pulled Melancholia back towards itself, or captured it into an orbit of its own, than for tiny Earth (compared to Melancholia, very tiny compared to the sun) to have enough gravity to redirect a planet that has traveled n number of lightyears and safely flew by a sun with so much more gravity and a planet of only slightly less mass in astronomical terms.  The entire film's premise is utterly unbelievable unless we are meant to believe that planets are directed not by science but pulled in by humans and their sinful nature.  If God is going to enter into the equation then we must also realize that God promised not to destroy all human life ever again and that there is still more of the story that has yet to occur.  This film's entire premise is pure nonsense and the execution, while technically masterful, fails to provide a coherent story or message.  Failing to do that goes against my inclinations as a writer and artist.  The music was so annoying by the end, repetitive and hopeless.  As someone who has struggled with depression in the past one might think that i could understand this in ways that others might not be able to...but that doesn't not appear to be the case.


As a lover of film as an artistic media and someone who has studied film in an academic setting...i find this to be crap on the order of 2001.  Learn how to communicate...it is possible.  But of course, the only thing that was probably meant to be communicated was hopelessness.  At least that's easier to nail down than what 2001 was meant to communicate.