This is the best movie I’ve seen in a long time, and it’s not just because it sent me to tears (honestly, that happens quite easily for me). The Worst Person in the World is the kind of movie that resonates for days after. There are scenes that develop more meaning after they soak in your brain for while, like a photograph.
Renate Reinsve plays Julie. She’s charming, delightful, and has a kind of magnetic spirit that draws you in, even as her attention bounces from one career ideology to the next. Up for any creative challenge, she encounters Aksel (Anders Danielsen) who is older with a more established path ahead.
Directed by Joachim Trier, the film plays out in intimate visionary scenes, as if he woke up from a dream and wrote down meticulous notes. Time plays a character – demanding, fleeting, and a little too constant. It’s always there hovering over Julie as she tries to figure out what (or who) comes next.
As soon as Julie seems to have settled in to her life, she meets Elvind (Herbert Nordrum). Inviting the interruption, Julie floats along with these new feelings – maybe this is love? While both men anchor her, their styles are different, and Elvind excites her in new ways as she gets closer to to defining herself. There is a particularly visceral scene that speaks to how we want to believe our pursuit of self-preservation doesn’t affect others.
There’s so much more this film touches on- loss, pain, friendship, and love. Lots of laughs, too. All of these things that get thrown at us while we try to figure out what path we’re on, and what the endgame is supposed to be. What do we really want? How do our choices affect others? When does it matter?
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