The Worst Person in the World is my first Joachim Trier film. Oscar season was a few months back and I saw a lot of mention of this film in some of the film communities I frequent so I thought I’d give it a try. Here’s what I thought while watching it.
I appreciate the humour in the beginning and the narration. The main character immediately struck me as someone lost in who she is and what she wants. I think that is the most prominent theme through-out The Worst Person in the World, and probably the one that deceives us most.
Identity Crisis or Part of Growing Up?
Julie convinces herself over and over again that what she wants is in fact this one new thing she is trying for (as viewers all we can really do is believe her). And maybe for a while it is, but it certainly never lasts as long as she seems to want. I think for us as viewers this can be anything from seeming like flakiness to deception.
The most obvious example of this is that Julie works a part-time temp job in a bookstore during college. This is right after dropping out of medical school. When she’s 30 she’s still working there despite attempts at being a photographer and a writer, but though those never seem to be taken seriously or only for a short time. At one point we do see her writing, but it seems to be something she only brings herself to do on occasion.
I think that it’s never a big deal what she does, though. The scene changes. The time period changes. There’s no real indication of why. Wanting to be something, but remaining at the book shop is a really good piece of indirect story-telling. These things shift in the film that there’s no real attention to, and only later we discover through some subtle acknowledgement of the stagnation or sameness. We know she has shame about this, since she lies about what she does for a living in a couple places, but it’s never brought up as something about her. It’s just something we get to observe.
As someone accustomed to American films that hit you over the head with character changes or scene changes it’s quite nice to see aspects like this approached in the way that Joachim does, casually.
Directing Style and Camera Work
There are two scenes that are absolutely perfect in The Worst Person in the World. There isn’t any way to describe them and there almost isn’t any point in describing them — you have to see them, because they’re highly visual. They were beautifully written, beautifully shot, full of even more self-deception and denial, and just lovely to watch. I highly recommend this movie just for this part. I cannot say that enough.
Lastly, the film is around two hours long, but it felt more like three hours to me. I think some of the whimsical aspects die by the half-way point and there weren’t that many to begin with. To me it felt like there was a lot of filler, which perhaps is done on purpose to reflect on the way life just passes with nothing happening and everything exciting happening in only a few moments. I suppose that was one of the things I didn’t enjoy — the inconsistency in directing, but that could just be an unfamiliar experience for me. It certainly was effective and I did like the movie. I hope others who decide to give this a shot do too.
Rating: 4/5
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