Image courtesy of Oslo Pictures
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (2021)
This soulfully perceptive dramedy about the existential crisis of a young woman Julie in her late 20s is a masterpiece. Directed by Norwegian director Joachim Trier this film is a part of his Oslo Trilogy and focuses on the life of Julie who is approaching her 30th birthday and lives in an existential mess. Regardless of how old the viewer can be, "The Worst Person In The World" is a brilliant lighthearted, but profound drama about choices and mistakes, and it is relevant to all of us and expresses our foremost trusts.
Lesson 1
The idea in the quote Seneca: "Hurry up and live" may be one of the central messages of Trier's dramedy. Julie is on the cusp of her 30th birthday and is deliberately searching for purpose in life. She can't commit to anything and shuffles through majors, aspirations, hair colors, and boyfriends. She is young, handsome, psychologically infantile but intelligent, and her life is a series of choices and diverging roads: she is in a love triangle and likes two men (Aksel and Elvind), who are brainy and handsome and are interested in being with her.
They are endless choices that lay before Julie but she resists them because she is afraid of any borders and commitments. One day her ex, Aksel gets diagnosed with cancer and this situation depicts to her how dangerous it can be if you refuse to make any choices in life. If you don't do it for yourself, life will do it for you, and that's why it is so important to take control of your existence and not just be a spectator in your life. This lesson may be worth learning for all people, regardless of their age. Resistance to taking agency in your life may not just harm your plans but be self-defeating: after all, Julie doesn't seem to be a happy person. In the clinic she tearfully says to Akcel, she feels like she never sees anything through.
Lesson 2
There is nothing worse than being egoistic and being driven only by self-interests. Even if egoism seems not to harm other people a lot (Julie is certainly not a bad person, she just struggles to sense meaning), it can still defeat lives or at least have a huge negative impact on them. Being egoistic is shallow: switching from one person to another and from one major to another, Julie stays on the surface and doesn't give herself or other people live a meaningful life.
The title phrase is the phrase said by Elwind: he is in a relationship with another woman but flirts with Julie. However, he playfully refuses to go further not to be the worst person in the world. However, he says it playfully and he will soon leave his girlfriend for Julie. He is a simple man, who is infatuated, not an abuser, cheater, or villain, but his naive egoism is possibly the biggest evil ever. Being in relationships with people whose mindsets are not familiar to us we betray ourselves and these people. We invest our energy in quick-light choices we don't need and waste the potential we were born with. What can be worse than that? It is not even bad, it is tragic and devastating.
The most interesting thing about this film is certainly the fact it is not judgmental. Trier doesn't force us to judge the behavior of the protagonist and other movie characters. That's why "The Worst Person In The World" can be a great self-therapy for all the people who are on the verge of figuring themselves out. This melancholy dramedy filled with fascinating Oslo scenery is possibly not the best choice to watch after a stressful working day (in this case you'd better choose something funnier, gamble at Vave Casino or bet on football!), but it will definitely help you to deal with existential doubts and maybe even take a look at who you are and always wanted to be.
from Review Blog https://ift.tt/pJ3PVHh
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