Melancholia (2011)

*ing: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi

The movie starts off in super slow-motion ... and when I say super slow-motion I really mean slow-motion. The first 10 or 15 odd minutes of the film feels like watching an action replay of a sporting event. Anyway ... that actually makes it a very interesting start ... it sure did impress me. Melancholia is written and directed by Lars Von Trier, the same guy who directed Dogville.  Melancholia impressed me as much as Dogville impressed me. In fact I was prompted to watch Melancholia after I watched Dogville and now I have added all the movie directed by Lars Von Trier to my bucket list.

Melancholia is an apocalyptic drama where a rogue planet is shown entering Earth's orbit in a collision course and eventually hitting the planet Earth. However; the film narrates the tale of 2 sisters, their fate brings them together when the world as we know it is about to end. Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are sisters and having a strained relationship. The film starts off with the wedding of Justine being organized by her sister and brother-in-law John (Keifer Sutherland) and from that point on a series of events describes the two sisters and their strained relationships. Parallel to the events in the sisters lives are the cosmic events where the rogue planet and planet Earth on a collision course collide with each other. Needless to mention the two sisters perish in the end ... there ... I just blurted out the suspense ... but then ... that's not the whole point.

Despite the slow moving script Melancholia is a very interesting affair to watch. Lars Von Trier has done an awesome job and no wonder that explains why this movie got nominated for Palm d'Or at Canner and why Kirsten Dunst received the Best Actress award at Cannes. That speaks for the quality of this film.

Bottom-line: Impressive writing and direction by Lars Von Trier. Powerful performance by Kirsten Dunst. Must watch.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/
Rottentomoatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melancholia-2008/