Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015
This is a qualified 5 - if I could give it 10 for my own tastes, I would. That said, for some, buyer beware. And I guess I'm going to end up addressing my review to people who might rate this movie low because I think you can get more out of it than 1-3 stars when you watch it.
If you like Hollywood films and hate art films, obviously, stay away. If you like living in certainty, stay away. But before you do, let me make a small suggestion.
Sometimes being unsettled is good. Sometimes feeling bad is good - we should be grateful as human beings to feel depth of emotion - be it happiness OR melancholy.
Sometimes you should take a walk. Take a walk when the weather is great. But get out there and take a walk in a blizzard, on a really hot day, or in the rain... or on a foggy night, put on headphones, go out for a walk at 1am and listen to old spooky blues records.
The whole POINT of going for a walk instead of staying in your living room where you have everything just the way you like it IS that it is unsettling.
The whole, "ships are safest in harbor, BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT SHIPS ARE FOR" and neither are you.
So that said, what are you buying into with Melancholia? You aren't getting entertainment, you're getting art.
I don't think it is about depression per se. It isn't about "gee, these people are depressed and what should they do about it."
I got the distinct impression that Kirsten Dunst's character has some sort of foresight. Not specific knowledge but she feels intrinsically that something is going to go wrong, thus the dumping of the great advertising job that she is brilliant at, the groom, etc. It turns out she isn't feeling depressed, she's feeling ACCURATELY.
Which begs the question is depression or melancholy ALWAYS a dysfunction or is it healthy when it is an accurate response to what is going on? Is cheerfulness, teamwork, ambition, confidence, sick in the wrong context? This isn't a movie about "oh gee they're DEPRESSED" which I see in quite a few 5 star reviews as well as 1 stars. Dunst makes the right decisions about her life, drops the career, etc because something horrible is coming and can feel that in light of that, it doesn't mean all that much to her - that's symbolically valid within the movie with the rogue planet coming, but it's valid in actual real life.
The fact is, something horrible is going to happen to you.
It is coming for you as you read this, waiting somewhere in your future.
Certainly death, the deaths of those you love, absolutely, but not just death. It's very likely you'll have your heart broken, lose a good friendship, disappoint yourself, act like a jerk in a way you can never take back, experience the whole gamut of suffering, pain, for yourself and those you love - you will lose things or have horrible things happen or do bad things THAT CAN NEVER BE UNDONE.
Ouch, right? But so, so very true.
Now, if you want to stay in your living room with everything just so, if walking in the fog at 1am listening to blues records or in the rain, lifting your face to feel it instead of rushing inside sounds insane to you, you are missing out. And besides, your living room won't ultimately save you.
What do you do when depression is PERFECTLY JUSTIFIED, the most sane thing? Do you withdraw? Do you rush out to seek other people? But what if other people can't help? How do you, how do others, meet what is most definitely coming? Sorry but this too is part of the human experience. You will be more alive, more human, more compassionate to other humans, with that awareness - less human, less alive without.
It's one of those roadtrip/cocktail party questions - what is art? I'll tell you my definition. When you sleep, you dream and process the events of your life symbolically. People kept awake to long start too go kind of batty, can't function well - even if you let them sleep but interrupt only when they start dreaming. Dreaming is the unconscious processing of being alive - of life's experience. You have to do it or you'll literally lose your mind.
Art is kind of the same way - it's the semi-conscious processing of human experience of life. Dreaming and art fulfill kind of the same functions - in the months following WW2, in totally bombed-out Germany, while Berlin was still essentially rubble, what did the people there do in the aftermath, as soon as they had their bare, basic needs met? Put on plays. Put little orchestras together and play music. In the RUBBLE. Because they needed to. I suspect we're all a little crazy in this day and age because we instinctively reach for art and get entertainment handed to us instead - sleep instead of dreaming.
So anyway, the movie is beautiful. I was about to say "well, it isn't entertainment but it is art" but I remembered, in the 1800's there was a musical subgenre that specifically would be songs about tragically dead children - seriously that was it - people would show up to the concerts in droves, weep, it'd be very cathartic. If THAT was entertainment, I suppose Melancholia is entertainment - depressing films, horror films that ACTUALLY horrify as opposed to make you jump due to a loud sudden noise, are cathartic and entertaining in their own right. Idunno, maybe we in America have a religion that trumps all others and that religion is COMFORT. That makes me feel uncomfortable, which is why I take walks in bad weather and at bad times and watched Melancholia - to take me out of my comfort zone just a little bit.
And ah... have some compassion for the people you run into in your life that aren't all sparky and upbeat - psychological studies prove that slightly depressed people perceive reality more accurately than upbeat people. Maybe they're onto something. Non-melancholy is overrated :)
