The Worst Person in the World: Oscar Nom a Sparkling Study of an Impulsive Woman... Romantic and Otherwise
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A
The Worst Person in the World starts as a rom-com, snapping with all of the familiar tropes: flirtations, neuroses, well drawn, sometimes annoying lead characters, off-beat humour and charm. It ends in a much different place.
On the surface, it’s a simple enough premise: a young woman transitioning into adulthood, trying to find her place in the world. But in the hands of Norwegian director Joachim Trier, The Worst Person in the World is at one level a social satire about love, identity and relationships, and at the same time, a warm and deeply poignant look at the imperfect way life can creep up on us.
Julie (Renata Reinsve) and Aksel (Anders Danielson Lie), together… for now.
The film arrives in theatres, with a stack of nominations, including two Oscars (Best International Feature film and Best Original Screenplay) and two BAFTAs (Best Film Not in The English Language, and Best Leading Actress for Renate Reinsve). It was a buzz film at Cannes where it debuted in competition for the Palme D’Or, and Reinsve won the Best Actress award.
The Worst Person in the World centers around Julie, (Reinsve), a woman in her late twenties living in Oslo. She’s smart, beautiful, and determined to do something with her life that will measure up to her ideals.
Simultaneously driven and drifting, she keeps changing her mind about her career path, and takes a job in a bookstore while she figures things out. She meets Aksel, played by Anders Danielsen Lie, who is the author of a series of popular graphic novels. There’s big chemistry.
He’s in his mid-forties and worries about their age difference, and how they’re at different stages in their lives. But that doesn’t deter Julie. In fact, it seems to appeal to her. They move in together, settle into their relationship, and debate having children.
Then, Julie crashes a party and meets Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), who is closer to her age, but, also in a relationship.
At heart, The Worst Person In The World is a character study about Julie navigating her way into adulthood. The film covers four or five years in her life. The time frame isn’t specifically noted on screen. Rather than marking time in a linear way, Trier, and his longtime writing partner Eskil Vogt, have divided the film into chapters, which gives the film the freedom to jump into points in her life.
Julie is a great modern character. Connected and distracted by technology, she feels like the world is her oyster, with many options on the table. She has a range of interests and talents and is constantly shifting her attention.
She’s impulsive and yet, we get that she’s not frivolous, nor is she irresponsible. She wants to live authentically, to be true to who she is, but does she even know that that’s what she wants? She’s searching for something she can’t quite define, and is aware that she hasn’t found it yet.
Reinsve is superb. Julie is so alive and sparkling that you can’t take your eyes off her. She’s full of contradictions. On one hand free spirited and searching, and yet, she slides into some very conventional choices. And because of Reinsve’s beautifully calibrated performance, we get the sense that even when Julie is momentarily aware of those contradictions, she buries them. The character could be maddening, but because of Reinsve’s embrace of her character, we root for her.
Reinsve’s performance has been rightly recognized. But she’s well matched in the film - in particular by the actors who play the two men she’s involved with in the film. Nordum is lovely as the warm, soft hearted, Eivind, who is both fascinated and puzzled by Julie.
The film’s soul, however, comes from Anders Danielsen Lie, who plays Aksel. His relationship with Julie, with the world and with himself, grounds the film. Like Reinsve, he’s an internal actor, and you can see what the character is thinking in his subtle reactions.
As a filmmaker, Trier is interested in exploring modern life, through characters and relationships. He’s an insightful and skillful story teller.
And that’s important here. The Worst Person In The World often has a slightly satirical tone to it, at Julie’s expense. But it never descends into caricature. It’s not possible to reduce Julie to a stereotype of a self-absorbed person using other people for her own ego gratification.
No matter where he takes us with the story, Trier doesn’t ever diminish his lead character. Julia wants to live an authentic life, to find a place in it where she can be genuine for herself and others. The story here is broader and deeper.
Some people transition smoothly into adulthood, marriage, kids, jobs. But some of us spend our lives, or part of our lives searching for that genuine place. The Worst Person In The World talks about the cost of that search.
Trier reminds us that becoming an adult, being authentic and happy, is often a process of trial and error. Failure (often self inflicted) and loss are inevitable. And yet, how beautiful is the life ahead with all its potential and promise.
The Worst Person in the World. Directed by Joachim Trier, written By Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt. Starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordum. Opens in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal on Friday, February 11 and expands to Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Kingston, Waterloo, Regina and Saskatoon on February 18.