Melancholia
Magnolia Films | Release Date: November 11, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 17, 2011
Leave it to von Trier to conceive an intergalactic sci-fi metaphor for a psychological disorder – and then make it work so astonishingly well. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 11, 2011
A ravishing, emotional and often very funny film about a wedding gone wrong, the end of the world and a woman suffering from profound depression. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 10, 2011
Its true subject is melancholia as a spiritual state, a destroyer of happiness that emerges from its hiding place behind the sun, just like the menacing planet, then holds the heroine, Justine, in its unyielding grip and gives Ms. Dunst the unlikely occasion for a dazzling performance. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 10, 2011
Firmly rooted in the filmmaker's esoteric, frustrating, provoking, demanding narrative style, the movie is also amazingly romantic - lush, ripe, rich, delicious. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesNov 10, 2011
Apocalyptic visions are nothing new in cinema, but they're almost always epic in scale; Von Trier's innovation is to peer down the large end of the telescope, observing the end of the world in painfully intimate terms. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 7, 2011
The vision is as hateful as it is hate-filled, but the fusion of form and content is so perfect that it borders on the sublime. Read full review
100
The New YorkerAnthony LaneOct 31, 2011
Von Trier's latest fable is nothing without its blaze of majesty - or, as his detractors would say, its bombast. Read full review
100
IndieWireEric KohnOct 25, 2011
Melancholia hovers in ambiguity with riveting aesthetic prowess. Read full review
100
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 24, 2011
For all the tyrannical disdain he's shown other filmmakers over the years, von Trier once again demonstrates a mastery of classical technique, extracting incredibly strong performances from his cast while serving up a sturdy blend of fly-on-the-wall naturalism and jaw-dropping visual effects. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumOct 19, 2011
A movie masterpiece...is Lars von Trier's ecstatic magnum opus on the themes of depression, cataclysm, and the way the world might end. Read full review
100
EmpireKim NewmanSep 26, 2011
Von Trier is a burr under the hide for many viewers, and the unconverted won't be convinced. But it's audacious, beautiful, tactful filmmaking and perhaps the perfect match for "The Tree Of Life" on a bipolar double bill. Read full review
95
MovielineStephanie ZacharekNov 10, 2011
The actresses' performances intertwine beautifully, like twin climbing vines vying for the attention of the sun. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 1, 2011
Melancholia is an intense, exhausting experience. That may not sound appealing, and for some, it won't be. But nor should it be off-putting. Proceed with caution, perhaps. But proceed nevertheless. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 10, 2011
Melancholia is emphatically not what anyone would call a feel-good movie, and yet it nonetheless leaves behind a glow of aesthetic satisfaction. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. HobermanOct 25, 2011
Plenty of moments in Melancholia are painfully funny. Some moments are even painful to watch, but there was never a moment when I thought about the time or my next movie or did not care about the characters or had anything less than complete interest in what was happening on the screen. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 23, 2011
Dunst's performance is a thing of calm beauty and mired grit, fully deserving of the Best Actress Award she received for this work at Cannes. The entire supporting cast also proves to be a delight, even in their obstinacy and oddities. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickNov 11, 2011
Nutty Danish provocateur Lars von Trier -- long one of the most annoying filmmakers on the planet -- turns out one of the year's most emotionally resonant art movies. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 10, 2011
Von Trier draws us inexorably into the web of these characters. He loses us in a dream of his own devising. That's filmmaking. Now if he'd only learn to shut up at press conferences. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 10, 2011
Much of Melancholia plays, effectively, like a slice of late 20th century Dogme-style realism, in the vein of the film "Celebration" by von Trier's fellow Dane, Thomas Vinterberg. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 9, 2011
If I were choosing a director to make a film about the end of the world, von Trier the gloomy Dane might be my first choice. The only other name that comes to mind is Werner Herzog's. Both understand that at such a time silly little romantic subplots take on a vast irrelevance. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 20, 2011
Melancholia is a remarkable mood piece with visuals to die for (excuse the pun), and a performance from Dunst that runs the color spectrum of emotions. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 9, 2011
The grand concept is really just a vehicle for a more intimate study of depression and its dangerous, shifting polarities. Read full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissNov 10, 2011
For stretches of the film, von Trieria is as welcome as Siberia. You must stay to the end for a potent payoff, when the tragic magic of the opening scenes is reasserted. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 8, 2011
It is during Melancholia's second half, after a ruinous conclusion to the wedding, that the real magic happens, with our heroine hardened into a wry, cynical Cassandra - the voice of Von Trier himself. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanDec 1, 2011
The experience of psychological depression has been described with a variety of metaphors. William Styron called it "darkness visible," and Winston Churchill euphemized his bouts as "the black dog." In typically grandiose fashion, though, Lars von Trier tops them all. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 17, 2011
As von Trier's ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy, Melancholia is a broodingly downbeat self-portrait but also the inspiring work of an artist of seemingly boundless imaginative power. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenNov 10, 2011
All that's deliberate, but the lingering question is not: Is Melancholia a sly depiction of the end we deserve, or simply a lovely load of bombast? Be prepared to choose one or the other; unless there's an extra moon in tonight's sky, it can't be both. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensNov 11, 2011
And yet - and yet - there's something about the solemn, gloomy, often overwhelmingly powerful experience of watching Melancholia. I'll give it this much: This is a hard movie to forget. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 12, 2011
Dunst gives a strong, hard-bitten performance even though she is playing an attitude rather than a character. Much of Justine's upsets are recorded in Von Trier's shaky-cam style – seasick realism. The grand planet-busting finale, though, is a beauty. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 22, 2011
Like a newborn planet, Melancholia is magnetically beautiful, but it's also an unformed mass of hot air. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 8, 2011
Melancholia represents von Trier at his best and worst. Visually and thematically, Melancholia is a rich motion picture, full of nuances. Unfortunately, in his pursuit of an artistic vision, von Trier has thrown logic, physics, and coherence out the window. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 8, 2023
The film is entirely ridiculous, often quite boring, with a script showing worrying signs of being cobbled together. But even as a longtime Von Trier doubter, I now have to admit it grows on you; there's a mawkish fascination and some flashes of real visual brilliance. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 10, 2011
Lars von Trier's end-of-days drama Melancholia feels as if it's something from another world...but even by his standards this remote yet lovely funereal dirge is in its own orbit. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 10, 2011
If only Lars von Trier took into account that audiences might actually want to enjoy Melancholia, rather than endure it, or sift through it, or submit to the director's will, he might have made something extraordinary. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 10, 2011
Nearly everyone in this film is unlikeable, their actions inexplicable. And the pace is so lugubrious that it's hard not to succumb to Justine's glum mood. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 10, 2011
Watching Melancholia is like being stuck next to a brilliant depressive at a dinner party. The food is exquisite, the conversation scintillating, and the longer you sit there the more trapped you feel in another man's all-encompassing gloom. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 26, 2011
The poetic, referential succession of near-still images that opens the film so immaculately distills Melancholia's moody narrative and themes that it makes the two-hours-plus that follow seem impossibly redundant. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 17, 2012
This is not a feel-good movie. This is the frigid, hard-to-embrace cinematic opposite of a feel-good movie, in fact -- all wrapped in one long, dark metaphor for depression. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineRichard MoweOct 25, 2011
The second half, though, simply descends into chaotic banality as the sisters await their fate. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 30, 2011
By the time Melancholia finally crawls to its conclusion, his (von Trier) round orb in the sky isn't as depressing as the rectangular screen. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedNov 8, 2011
Melancholia is his latest pile of undiluted drivel, nauseatingly filmed by a wonky hand-held camera and featuring a crazy, mismatched ensemble headed by Kirsten Dunst, who won an acting award in Cannes last year for looking totally catatonic. Read full review
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