Plot Summary – A young woman battles indecisiveness as she traverses the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path.

Original Title – Verdens verste menneske

Original Language – Norwegian

★★★★★ 

Watched on 18 Feb 2022

Sometimes art supersedes its medium and has a touching impact on you. From the opening second to its closing breath, I was completely absorbed and captivated by this film. I found out it had become available on torrent a long time ago but I resisted every urge to watch this film cause I knew that soon I would be able to catch it in theatres (shoutout Amherst Cinema!) and I am so glad that I did. The theatre experience really helps you get swallowed whole by the world of this film. It breaks all the rules and yet is one of the most structurally sound films I’ve watched. There are some scenes that will stay with me forever and the writing in this film is otherworldly. Some pieces of dialogue are so poetic and beautiful that they transcend the barrier of language and touch the soul. The color palette of the film is actually kind of similar to that of an MCU movie and yet that works when set on the backdrop of Oslo. I really really want to go there now because this film does such a phenomenal job of capturing it. It really feels like a living breathing character in this film. The actual themes of the film are so interesting and I couldn’t stop thinking about it on the way home. A romantic-comedy-drama-thriller is what I’d describe it as and yet it doesn’t fit into the boundaries of any of those genres. Each choice that Julie makes is so confusing and not really rational and yet you feel supportive of her. Trier does a phenomenal job of making you care but also not taking anyone’s side in the film. That’s the most interesting aspect for me. How it manages to go over so many socio-political issues while never taking a hard stance and leaving the viewer with two sides of an argument. The narration in the background in its macabre tone killed me every time and managed to bring a sense of lightness to even the heaviest scenes. I also loved how some couples around me were arguing during the movie, proving how unbothered it is with taking a side and having a strong moral stance on any of these conflicts because what it does beautifully shows the humanity in the characters in their ability to make mistakes. Renate Reinsve is brilliant in the lead role, completely taking over as the character and making you feel all sorts of emotions for her. However, the standout performance for me was that of Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel, he gives an absolutely powerful and yet devastating performance. Even when he is passively in a scene, his aura is felt. I highly highly recommend The Worst Person in the World which is definitely going in my top movies of 2021!