Miss Flicks

The Worst Person in the World: Film Review

It’s not often a Best International Feature Film Oscar nominee breaks through into other categories so the fact that Joachim Trier‘s The Worst Person in the World has also been nominated for Best Original Screenplay speaks volumes.

This Norwegian film chronicles four years in the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), a twenty-something who doesn’t know what she wants. She is constantly searching, trying to figure out who she is, what career she wants to pursue, and who she wants to be in a relationship with. In the beginning, she is with comic book artist Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), who is 15 years older, but her head gets turned by Eivind (Herbert Nordrum).

This is a non-traditional romantic comedy and also a coming-of-age story. It’s about love and romance and there are plenty of laughs but it’s also quite dark, complex and probably won’t leave you with that warm fuzzy feeling. It is divided into twelve chapters sandwiched between a prologue and an epilogue, and I liked how the (sometimes humorous) chapter headings signalled a jump ahead in time to the next significant moment in Julie’s life.

The terrific screenplay explores themes of love, sex, relationships, motherhood, adulthood, mortality, and finding your identity. I think a lot of women will be able to relate to some of these moments, even if they don’t identify specifically with Julie. She is a messy person who makes plenty of bad decisions but I still rooted for her at the end of the day. It was clear that she needed to learn how to love herself rather than looking for it elsewhere.

Reinsve won the Best Actress prize at Cannes and was nominated for a BAFTA – and rightly so. The newcomer – in her first-ever lead role – is sensational! Julie feels like a real, believable person, not a character. She is fully realised both on the page and before the camera and Reinsve embraces all of her nuances (the script was written with her in mind). She was also a delight to watch. Reinsve is getting all of the attention but I think Danielson Lie deserves equal recognition. He has a scene towards the end of the movie that seriously moved me.

I think my experience with The Worst Person in the World was affected by my high expectations. I had heard nothing but praise for months so I was expecting The Best Film in the World but I wasn’t blown away by it. It’s very good though, and I really hope it wins the Oscar for its realistic and honest screenplay.

In cinemas from Friday 25th March