Melancholia...thoughts?

Movie about a planet on its way toward Earth and about depression and how people deal with impending doom, both imagined and real.

Watched it last night, and it was just okay. Here is my non-spoiler synopsis and advice:

- It's a very slow movie. And quite literally at times too...the first 7 or 8 minutes are all different shots in EXTREMELY slow motion (think the effects in Zombieland-slow). Just over and over. Maybe it's supposed to be "artsy," but it just gets very annoying after a while.

The film is broken into two parts, each about an hour long. The first part, "Justine," is about Justine and how she is depressed and whatnot. It is centered around her wedding/reception. It's very odd and awkward most of the time. Part two, "Claire," is about Justine's sister and her coming to grips with the situation and how it will affect her and her family.

The film is mainly about depression, but I can honestly tell you that you can fastforward through the first half of it ("Justine") and not really miss a beat. Just know that Justine is depressed and is basically acting like a bitch to everyone during her wedding reception. Then start watching part two ("Claire").

Also, you get to see Kirsten Dunst's boobs.



Spoilers part for those who have seen it.

What did you think? I wasn't a huge fan of it. I felt like a lot of times, it was trying too hard to be "artsy" without actually being so. Also, I really didn't care for the first hour. Sure, I know that it sets up Justine and her depression (although it never really tells us why she's depressed), but I felt like it just dragged along SOOO slowly and could've been done in half the time.

The second half though, I thought was pretty good. I liked Jack Bauer's character a lot. And I liked how positive and comforting he was the whole time...it was like he knew that the planet was likely gonna hit, but tried to keep it out of his mind and believe that it wouldn't. And it wasn't until he finally saw it after it slingshotted around that he fully accepted that it was over and chose to kill himself.

I liked how Claire stayed calm throughout the whole thing...I was reading about the movie and that was basically the whole gist of it: how depressed people stay calm during bad situations because they already expect bad things to happen anyway. The movie did a good job of that, I just wish it wouldn't have dragged on so much. It was 2 hours and 15 minutes long, and could've been at least 30 minutes shorter, if not longer.

I did think it was weird that the planets collided in the first ten minutes though, but apparently Lars von Trier didn't want people to focus on if they would or not, and wanted to get it out of the way and focus on the characters and their depression.

All in all, I thought it was just okay. I really do think you could watch Justine's half in FFWD and get everything you needed to know in order to watch the second half. I enjoyed the second half much more, and liked Jack Bauer's performance a lot. And the effects at the end were pretty cool as well.

Thoughts on this one?