Will Song

The world is ending and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Unlike the
science fiction action films that are all about the race against time to save humanity, there is no strong jawed action star to save the day at the last moment. From the outset of Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia we are told that everything is going to end. A brilliant 9-minute visual prelude to the story lays out the emotions and imagery that the film sets out to represent. The introduction ends with a massive planet colliding with Earth,
destroying it and everyone on it.
Then the movie takes a shift. We look at a woman, Justine, and the events that unfold during her wedding day. There is a slight hint at the impending destruction of the world, perhaps a star is missing from its normal place, blocked by some unknown
presence. However for the first hour of this film we do not see the dissolution of the
human race, rather we see a woman’s life get destroyed in a single evening. Justine suffers from severe depression, which reveals itself slowly, but as the film goes on her struggles are shown to be all-encompassing and heartbreakingly debilitating.
Throughout the first half of the film we slowly begin to see Justine disassociate from her surroundings as she is overwhelmed by expectations from her new husband, pressure from her unsavory boss, disappointment from her family and a general sense that no one really understands or cares about what she is going through. After everything that is holding her life together is taken from her, she suffers a mental breakdown and stays with her sister Claire. From here on out the film focuses on Justine’s sister Claire.
The film’s shift to Claire’s perspective is when the metaphorical end of Justine’s world symbolically mirrors the genuine extinction of the world. It is revealed that a planet called “Melancholia” is hurtling towards Earth. Claire’s husband John insists that scientists have predicted the giant blue planet will simply pass by The Earth. Claire is still worried, Melancholia is constantly on her mind as it literally hangs above her in the sky with its eerie blue glow. All of this fear and anxiety is contrasted by Justine, who is completely unafraid. To her, the world has nothing worth saving.
This is a film that uses the end of all things to accurately portray depictions of mental illness. Justine and Claire become representations of depression and anxiety. As someone who suffers from both, this movie is heart wrenching to watch. To think about how one would react to the end of the world is one thing. To see two very believable reflections of how you might react is an entirely different and more harrowing experience. The film is achingly human. Characters have realistic flaws and virtues and the way they are written makes it so that you can understand the thought process behind their actions without having them explicitly say what they want or feel. In the end it feels as though we are watching real people confront concepts that feel out of their control. It doesn’t matter if those concepts are depression, anxiety or a glowing blue planet hurtling
towards earth; in this film, it all feels so real.