The Worst Person in the World

So, what did I just watch? A romance or more of a psychological portrait of the main character? Probably a mix of both, but the truth is, after the first fifteen minutes, I was tempted to call it quits because I found myself somewhat bored. However, I stuck with it, and to my surprise, the film remained watchable despite its consistently slow pace. It didn't blow me away, but it wasn't dumb either, and I can comfortably agree with many of the ideas it presented. The overly drawn-out runtime is a major drawback, though, so I'll settle on a generous three stars. / Lesson learned: Take a moment to think before you judge someone. (05/15/2022)

The relationship between the distracted Julie and the internally balanced Aksel reflects all possible problems and vices of the contemporary world, with which we are willingly rushing to meet our doom. I find it quite strange that during the free fall, happy moments flash by, moments that have the power to pull the viewer into joyful euphoria. And that's exactly what happened to me a couple of times while watching the movie. (85%) (04/17/2023)

There's no question that The Worst Person in the World has cinematic value. At certain parts, I even felt like I was watching something so amazing that I wasn’t even sure I could fully grasp it in the moment. The deft use of music, sound, and silence was just perfect. So was the cinematography and the visuals of the film. Some of the conversations, the moments – my God – are so incredibly good and pleasantly uninhibited. The choice of actors fantastically complements the visuals I mentioned. And yet there were so many times I was wishing it was over already. I wish the chapters had gone by faster, and that they would never lose their original freshness. So they wouldn't sink into suffocation. I was literally craving even the smallest joke so I could drop the weight from my shoulders for a bit. A film in which I can see fragments of genius, but also feel an almost torturous lack of comprehension. (04/09/2022)

Considering how Aerofilms is cramming this film through every orifice (I've seen its trailer a good fifteen times) and is clearly trying to patch up two years of COVID losses with it, I automatically went to see it already in an oppositional mindset. And thus began our fantastic mutual war that lasted until the very end. One of my first attacks was the accusation that it’s all well and good to build up an independent and idiosyncratic heroine when the film assigns her to such an idiotic and one-dimensional male character. Except that when it lets the characters talk about something other than relationships for a while, suddenly they're not so dumb and they actually drop some pretty interesting details. But what if these passages too are describing some classic male cliché, which I don't realize because I AM the cliché? And then there were those moments when I resisted jumping in on any of the suggested topics because I feared I was walking into a trap. A couple of times this proved justified, and yet I still occasionally fell for the traditional audience feel-good cliché "She's literally me!" (definitely in the scene where the heroine wanders around town, squeezing herself into someone else's party, where she’s advising others "from a medical position" on how to raise their children with two semesters of medicine under her belt), only to laugh at the film afterwards about how it has to help itself with a cancer plot. But that is suddenly the strongest passage, with a real palpable presence of finality, and it made me think of Verhoeven's Turkish Delight. By the end of the battle, I had almost acknowledged my full surrender before the film finally couldn't help itself and had to demonstrate that theme of female independence through the dilemma of having/not having a child and I was terribly annoyed by the last shot because who the fuck puts a monitor right next to the stove?! So the win goes to Trier, however in boardgame terms he didn't make it to Major Victory in the end but only to Minor. But I worked up a sweat. (03/21/2022)

At first glance, this is just another conversational relationship movie whose ending is reminiscent of clichéd Hollywood schlock. But the first thing that came to my mind when I woke up the next morning was HE and SHE, intensely, as if I knew them personally, and the story they gave each other. The sunset scene still pains me to this day. When was the last time we saw such an apt and sincere relationship flick? Joachim Trier is a perceptive psychologist with a unique feel for finely drawing characters, which he enlivens with nice filmmaking ideas – stopping time at the moment of falling in love and the fitting animated depiction of a mushroom trip influenced by the weight of one’s current thoughts on life. Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie are an outstanding acting duo. (03/17/2022)