Review: Melancholia

3.5/4

WOW. This movie is an absolute nightmare. Part I is a human drama with only small undertones of anything more. But Part II obliterates. There is a deep terror that owns the last quarter of this film, and it is shaking and even mind-bending. It examines humanity through the most intimate apocalypse I have ever seen and in that way disturbs the viewer with a frighteningly new image. We know how to react to apocalypse movies with dramatic newsreels and big-city populations fleeing from disaster. We see that all the time. But how do we take in the end of the world from the perspective of three or four people, cut completely off from society? And could the group be more diverse? We have an astroscientist, a child, a detached prophet and an exactly-human woman. The set-up is fantastic. Even more powerful is the terror of the inevitable, which we experience through the woman of full humanity. We think of who we would want to spend Earth's last hour with. What if we had a child? What if we were alone somewhere? The consequences of the apocalyptic event, both physically and psychologically, are fascinating. While Part I was mostly depressing to me, and contributed almost nothing to the end, I can forget all of that for the ungodly ambition that made Part II a revelation. The movie was beautiful and powerful, and original in all capacities.