The Worst Person In The World (Autism Friendly Screening) (15)

Julie kisses farewell to her twenties in the midst of an existential crisis of her own making. Adding to her restlessness and regret, Julie's older boyfriend Aksel is a successful graphic novelist, who is ready to commit and settle down. One night, Julie throws caution to the wind by impulsively gate-crashes a party where she meets charming Eivind. She jettisons Aksel and embarks on a passionate relationship with the new man in the hope that he will spark her back to life.

LondonNet Film Review

The Worst Person In The World (15) Film Review from LondonNet

In A Picture Of Dorian Gray, author Oscar Wilde proposes that experience is just another name men give to their mistakes. The restless millennial at the centre of Joachim Trier’s exuberantly crafted comedy drama certainly accumulates a lot of experiences as she kisses farewell to her 20s, neatly distilled by the Norwegian film-maker into 12 chapters, an epilogue and a prologue. None of these missteps is sufficiently grievous to warrant the titular dishonour. The self-defeating heroine, who is impetuous and directionless, would disagree, blaming herself for the misfortunes of others, including an accident with a light fitting. When she pushes the self-destruct button, or hammers it furiously in futile attempts to satisfy her fickle heart, good people are the collateral damage…

Nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and International Feature Film, The Worst Person In The World stylishly concludes the writer-director’s Oslo Trilogy comprising Reprise and Oslo, August 31st with a series of heartfelt, bittersweet and moving vignettes galvanised by a powerhouse central performance from Renate Reinsve. It’s an exhilarating trek along her character’s emotional spectrum from tearful loneliness and crushing despair to giddy carefree abandon, including a second chapter entitled Cheating that brilliantly captures the heady scent of possibility during a flirtatious first encounter at a party.

In Trier’s picture, the couple’s playful to and fro includes sniffing each other’s musky armpits and quietly observing their respective toilet regimes. “We didn’t cheat,” they agree with mutual smirks. The Worst Person In The World doesn’t cheat either in its pursuit of rich, layered and uncomfortably relatable characterisation.

When we first meet student Julie (Reinsve), she is in the throes of an existential crisis of her own making. Drowning out her gnawing sense of unease with the “digital interference” of social media, Julie casually changes her scholarly focus from medicine to psychology and then photography. Boyfriend Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), 15 years her senior and a successful graphic novelist, is ready to settle down and have children but Julie is resistant to parenthood. One night, she gatecrashes a wedding reception and verbally spars with guest Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). Soon after, Julie jettisons Aksel to embark on a passionate relationship with the new man. Regrets surface. When you don’t have to tend the grass on the other side of the fence, it’s bound to look lusher and greener.

The Worst Person In The World is a wondrous character study that spares Julie few blushes. Reinsve’s irresistible performance draws on a script co-written by Trier and Eskil Vogt, which sends Julie along a flimsy tightrope between celebration and self-annihilation. At one point, Aksel devours an article that Julie has penned on female sexuality and anoints it “intellectual Viagra”. Trier’s stimulating picture also merits such lofty praise.

– Kim Hu