David O'ConnellMelancholia
December 7th 2011 04:27
I didn’t hate Melancholia. There’s only one other Lars von Trier film I can say the same about - Breaking the Waves (1996). For the provocative director’s latest film, a drama that wavers between brilliance - the opening montage of images that give the impression of liquifying portraits - and stretches of tedium, he’s assembled a first-rate cast to populate the protracted first stanza at a wedding reception on an opulent estate. Though Justine (Kirsten Dunst) has just tied the knot, not all is well. She appears to be suffering from an undefined malaise, a strange psychological state that increasingly threatens to spoil the celebrations.
In time clarification emerges from the sci-fi context von Trier encapsulates his story in: a planet named Melancholia has emerged from behind the sun and threatens extermination should its path cross that of Earth. Justine‘s mental deterioration, seemingly an acute melancholia of sorts, intensifies as the disaster becomes imminent.
Dunst has perhaps never given a better performance, especially through the film’s first half. But character’s apathy becomes alienating and less empathetic as she fades into the background. I’ve never warmed to Charlotte Gainsbourg who plays Justine’s distressed sister Claire; there’s an intellectual aloofness about her that has always made her inaccessible to me. The second half suffers because of this, slowing down and losing focus as she becomes the centre of attention. The diverse support players, including Charlotte Rampling as a comical figure of ludicrously stern negativity and Kiefer Sutherland's flummoxed husband, all revolve around the two central women, lost to narrative coherency in an orbit of their own.
Von Trier’s often high-minded approach, creating outlandish artistic statements, is thankfully held in check here, though a couple of unnecessary, provocative-for-the-sake-of-it moments couldn’t be resisted. The end result is something far less divisive and more audience friendly. Filled with stunning imagery, thanks to the picturesque work of cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro, deft use of classical music, and an overpoweringly beautiful yet bleak final moment, Melancholia (2011) is a very fine but still flawed work.
Melancholia opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, December 15.
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