Melancholia

     This is a weird movie. BUT that can be a good thing. In this case, I consider it a good thing. It was directed by Lars von Trier, the same guy who directed Antichrist, which is a super weird/dark love story starring the wonderfully strange Willem Defoe. Worth a watch but certainly not family friendly. Anyway, the first 20 minutes or so of Melancholia consist of super slow motion shots of surreal imagery with Kirsten Dunst as the main focus. Music-wise, there is a nice symphonic strings arrangement playing in the background. I wish I could get some still frames of this opening sequence (and much of the rest of the film for that matter) to put up around my house. Beautiful work. Beautiful I say.     

     This movie is different from most others I've seen in the fact that Trier separates it into Part One and Part Two. Part One focuses on the wedding ceremony between Justine (played by Kirsten Dunst) and her fiance (played by  Alexander Skarsgard, otherwise known as "Eric Nordstrom" from True Blood). Part Two focuses on Justine's sister, Claire (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who actually portrayed the part of Willem Defoe's lover in Antichrist). The second part of Melancholia is perhaps the more...busy(?) part of the movie. It just seems to have a little bit more going on I guess. Part Two features some really awesome CGI (computer-generated imagery) portraying outer space. A few of the shots are more than likely actual Hubble images of different star clusters and galaxies, but for the most part, it's CGI.

     The main plot of Melancholia, I would say, is the manner in which we as humans, choose to handle our daily lives and the chemistry we were born with. We observe how Justine chooses to deal with her apparently rather severe case of depression as well as her struggle to find meaning and happiness in life. Then we have Claire, who is trying to sort out her own problems with anxiety on top of coping with her depressed sister. Throughout the movie, when he is not trying to maintain some sense of order in all of this emotional chaos, Claire's husband (played by Kiefer Sutherland, best known for his role in the TV show 24) is tracking the motion of a newly discovered planet that astronomers have decided to name Melancholia, which could potentially breach the Earth's atmosphere, thus bringing life as we know it to an end. 

     I won't tell you the ending of course, but I do think that it was worth 136 minutes of my life. Well, I guess that's all relative. I say, if you don't watch it for the plot, at least watch it on mute with some Fleet Foxes or Explosions In The Sky playing over it. That might be cool. 

                                                  Some info on the rating...

It's rated "R". There is nudity, a decent amount of cussing, a sex scene or two, and some heavy issues.

     Alrighty! You are all set! Go hit up redbox or whatever it is you do to acquire your movies! I personally got my copy from redbox. Holla!