⚠️ Spoiler warning ⚠️

Melancholia respectively tells the two stories of two sisters Justine and Claire. The two sister represents two parts residing in Lars Von Trier: the younger sister is the depression while the older one, Claire, is the opposite of Justine; but at the same time they do share something in common. As someone who has been in the same place with Lars for years I'm supposed to connect or feel something about this but no, Melancholia has failed at making an impression on me.

The movie starts with some dreamy slow-motion shots that really intrigued me. But then it went downhill quickly when these symbolic shots ended and the wedding started. The first hour is nothing but a wedding tape of some rich and annoying white people. The pacing is just so bad and it has way too many redundant details; sure I understand Lars is trying to show the audience that Justine wasn't content with her life, and she couldn't take it anymore: having pressure about her job right at the wedding, her divorced parents insulted each other, her husband only likes her because of her appearance and the only thing that came across his mind during the speech is just how gorgeous she is... People just keep asking Justine if she were happy, she insisted that she was but you can clearly tell she wasn't (being ridiculously late to her wedding, falling asleep and taking a bath in the middle of the wedding). And later Justine realized even when it's one of the most important/happiest day of one's life, she's still clinically depressed and nothing ever changes; that's when Justine decided to take control of everything back by doing a sequence of impulsive actions (cheated on her husband and argued with her boss). She knew she messed up so she ended up being even more depressed, and that's when the second part started. In the first part you are supposed to feel sympathetic with her story but no; the lack of Justine's background hindered it all. All we know was Justine's parents got divorced and she might had unhappy childhood; but we didn't know why she decided to get married or falling in love with him in the first place. This is why Justine is portrayed like nothing but a shitty person (thanks to Lars ofc), and it made the first hour almost unwatchable.

The second part, Claire, definitely tells a better story with many more mesmerizing shots. Claire is the older sister of Justine and she's everything opposite of her. She's content with her life, has a talented, rich and loving husband with an obedient son. Two sisters live two separate lives, and the distance between them has made Claire said "sometimes I hate you so much, Justine.". However, Claire still takes good care of her younger sister, she's constantly worried about Justine in her wedding, tried to help Justin to take a bath and made Justine her favorite food while she's sick. You can see it's a symbol of Lars's desire to be alive (Claire) trying to console his depression (Justine), or his inner child trying to heal himself. But it didn't work at all, even Justine's favorite food taste like ashes to her, and according to Claire, "if that's doesn't get her out of bed, nothing will". Lars know that if the meatloaf, a metaphor for his only source of happiness doesn't make him feel anything anymore, then it's the moment when his Claire-self has been completely defeated, along with the inevitable death has come. Knowing that it will happen very soon, Justine quickly recovered while Claire started being more and more anxious when Melancholia came towards them. Justine, who has been clinically depressed for a very long time, found great comfort in Melancholia. She bathed herself in the light of it and embraced its existence, while Claire being panicked and trying desperately to find a way to escape (running to a village when a literal planet with the size of Lizzo gonna crush them into ashes lol?). We got some hauntingly beautiful scenes after that, like when Claire tried to run away with her son and it started to rain; while Justine just nonchalantly sitting on a wall and looking at them; and then the movie ended. One cool thing about its ending is that even when Justine had fully accepted her faith, she still look quite heartbroken to see her loved ones has to go too, and she still tried to emotionally support them by smiling and holding their hands. In this second part Kirsten nailed her character amazingly compared to the first part. You can see how talented she is by being hopelessly depressed and peacefully nonchalant in the same part.

Overall, there are way too many symbols and stuffs to talk about this movie, I could go on and on since I do enjoy the idea but it's poorly portrayed and not really a great cinematic experience. Like honestly I didn't think of most of the aforementioned things while watching the movie. It's only when I started writing this review and trying to dig deeper that I realized what the movie really is about.

One of the most interesting details of the movie is when Justine told Claire she knows things and said the exact number of the beans in the wedding jar. I've come to a theory and it might completely make this review doesn't make any sense anymore. This movie might have nothing to do with Lars and his depression time; Justine is just a clairvoyant, she has the ability to see the future, and she suffers from Cassandra complex (she knows the future but at the same time she knows these events can't be changed and she can't convince other people to believe her, watch the movie "12 monkeys" for more details). I mean at first I was convinced that Lars is just trying to show that Justine knows things, she knows more than Claire, like depressed people know more than normal people; but it doesn't make sense when Justine started saying "And when I say we're alone... We're alone. Life exists only on Earth.". Justine is simply psychic and she was feeling alone at first since no one but her could forsee the future, she deicided to ruin everything because everything is gonna end soon and there's no point in getting married or doing her job anymore. Later she just regretted it and then accepted her faith. She's no longer afraid of the death coming to her "if you think I'm afraid of a planet, then you're too stupid". And I'm actually more convinced with this theory lol. Anyways that's all.