The Me in Melancholia (No Spoilers)

I watched Melancholia last week, and I saw too much of Justine in me.  It was almost uncanny.

The 2011 arthouse film, Melancholia, was written and directed by Lars Von Trier and stars Kirsten Dunst (Justine), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Claire), Keifer Sutherland (John), Alexander Skarsgard (Michael), and a cast of minor characters that are insignificant to the purpose of this post. 

The narrative revolves around two sisters, Justine and Claire, and the events during Justine's wedding party and the events shortly after the wedding party wherein Justine, Claire, John, and Leo, who is Claire and John's young son, wait to see whether a rogue planet, appropriately named Melancholia, will collide with Earth or just be a fly-by.

The wedding party is a beautiful disaster.  It's a lavish affair that is a display of sumptuous wealth and taste, and it takes place at the estate of Claire and John, and, it becomes evident that John is independently wealthy and that he footed the bill for this extravagant wedding party.  During the party, Justine, though appreciative of John's goodwill, can't help but be a little too much herself, which is little too much of a bad thing.

When the limo she is sharing with her new husband, Michael, arrives at the estate, she immediately runs out to see her horse, Abraham, in the stables.  She's already late, and has absolutely no compunction about making her guests wait while she goes to pet Abraham.  Her sense of time is no sense of time. Upon arriving and greeting guests, Justine flits in and out mentally and geographically as ignores a loving and thoughtful gift from Michael, and, during one scene, makes her way to take a bath before the cake-cutting.  At one moment she sits on a stack of chairs and dangles her legs while kicking her shoes off.  I got so frustrated with Justine, and I wanted to tell her to jump down off the chair and just get out there and behave for a little while, but it wouldn't do any good.  I, of all people, know that.  Being a good sister, Claire most certainly tries to ground Justine, but is unsuccessful.

At the conclusion of the party, Michael leaves Justine.  The marriage is dissolved.  There's no nasty fight or barbs.  Justine tells Michael, "What'd you expect?," and the first part of the movie ends.

The second part ushers in a severely depressed Justine who is borderline catatonic.  Justine calls Claire to see if she can seek sanctuary at her sister's estate, and, of course, Claire says yes.  In preparation for Justine's arrival, Claire makes a guest bed complete with a chocolate on the pillow for the "out of body and mind" Justine.  Claire, being a good sister, gets Justine in the bed, bathes her, and gets food in Justine's stomach even if all Justine will do is stick her fingers in a jar of blueberry jelly and lick her fingers clean.  Justine is eventually rehabilitated to the point she can feed and wash herself.

As Justine becomes functional, Claire starts to unravel worried that Melancholia is going to collide with the Earth.  Despite John's excitement over Melancholia and his obsessive trekking of its path and confidence in the scientists' statements it will be a fly-by, Claire remains skeptical.

It's at this point that the tables flip.  Justine, through her sedated state induced by depression, is able to take control of a chaotic, frenzied situation and calm and steady Claire.  As to not give away any of the plot, I'll stop here.   Watch it to see if Earth and Melancholia collide.

Melancholia is available through Netflix instant streaming.