★★★★½
The Worst Person in the World, directed by Joachim Trier, captures the indecisive millennial experience in all its genuine, yet imperfect ways. It draws on life’s volatility in a way that allows the film to cohesively hit all of its beats no matter what Trier and co-writer Eskil Vogt threw it at it. To go with a stellar story, the acting and music send it to another level.
The film follows Julie (Renate Reinsve), a woman who has just switched from medical school to a degree in psychology until finally landing on pursuing photography. To further her effort in taking control of her life, she then leaves her current boyfriend and through her newfound interest in photography, starts dating comic artist Aksel Willman (Anders Danielsen Lie). The two form a quick bond and begin living with each other in Oslo, Norway. As their relationship progresses, their wants and needs begin to differ as Aksel, who is in his 40s, likes the notion of having children, while Julie, 29 years old, isn’t ready to make that leap into parenthood. After leaving a party early for Aksel’s latest comic, Julie reflects on her life and crashes a wedding. There, she meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), with whom she spends the night joking, telling secrets, and doing everything but cheating on Aksel. From this point, Julie is faced with the decision of continuing a relationship where she feels like she would have to grow up quickly or try something with Eivind who appears to be at a similar point in life.
This film is broken up into 12 chapters and includes a prologue and epilogue. Breaking it up into these segments gives it a unique form of pacing because when a chapter ends, it ends full stop, and viewers pick up in a different part of the story. This is a nice touch because if it were to not have these sorts of stops, the change of pace would come off as jarring. The acting throughout this movie is top-notch. Particularly Reinsve and Lie, whose relationship is center stage in the film, deliver tremendous performances. Their relationship feels organic and real and gives the viewer something to latch on to. Reinsve’s performance is one that will be remembered for some time because her emotions and her actions throughout feel extremely relatable, demonstrating to the audience that she feels lost in life and makes impulsive decisions in a way to shake things up to figure out who she really is. Another strong point to this film is its score. Ola Fløttum provides the perfect music to some of the surreal scenes in the movie, bringing the music to the perfect swell and not overpowering the scene that it trying to set. It matches the mood that Trier is conveying on screen without distracting the viewer.
The Worst Person in the World provides the story, music and visuals that give the moviegoers a film that captures their own experience. After this film, it would not be surprising if Joachim Trier, Renate Reinsve, and Anders Danielsen Lie become more well known due their all-around stellar performances.