Kiefer Sutherland, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia.

Melancholia, the new film by writer/director Lars von Trier (Dogville, Antichrist), left me completely torn in my opinion of its cinematic merits. He makes personal films that are usually intense on some level and often deal with the theme of evil. Melancholia fits that description but adds an unusual science fiction angle to the mix. On one hand Melancholia is a beautifully crafted movie with an intriguing premise that features some fine acting from its stars, most notably Kirsten Dunst in a role sure to turn heads and garner award nominations. On the other hand it is overlong and so methodically paced that it is rather tedious to sit through.

It begins with a montage of images in super-slow motion showing scenes of several of its characters interspersed with a huge celestial body crashing into Earth. Then the story proper begins. At this point we don’t know if this image of the earth colliding with a huge unknown object is real and the rest of the story a flashback to the events leading up to the crash, or if it’s a premonition in the form of a dream of events yet to come. The setting is a very wealthy estate in an unspecified time and place, although it appears to be contemporary.

The first half of the movie is set at a wedding reception where a depressed bride (Dunst) begins acting out in strange ways. She squats down in her wedding gown to take a pee in the middle of a field outside where the reception is being held and later has spontaneous sex with a man in that same field. At one point the guests observe and briefly comment on an unknown and brightly lit object in the night sky but other than that no mention is made of the impending doom until the second half of the movie. At which point we discover just what has been causing such erratic behavior in this seemingly normal young woman.

It seems a rogue planet is orbiting through our solar system. Scientists (including Kiefer Sutherland who is married to Dunst’s sister played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) have named this new blue planet Melancholia. He assures his wife and family that Melancholia will pass close to Earth but won’t collide with it. It already passed safely by Mercury and Venus.

Dunst, however, has psychic abilities, or as she tells her sister, “I just know things.” She is sure that Melancholia is on a collision course with Earth. And what’s more she insists that it is because life on Earth is evil and she goes on to say that she absolutely knows that we are all alone in the universe. If she is speaking for Lars then he has an incredibly cynical view towards humanity and life in general.

The science fiction angle of the story is very intriguing. But the director keeps the focus entirely on his small cast of characters. Just how the rest of the world is handling the crisis is never shown. The only time we get a glimpse of the bigger picture is when Gainsbourg does an online search under Melancholia. There are several shots with the image of this blue planet in the sky above Earth that are breathtakingly beautiful. This filmmaker definitely knows how to create and sustain a consistently haunting mood and sense of impending doom. Still I found Melancholia to be ultimately disappointing.
 

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