A bit of light and dark

Let’s start with the dark. Lars von Trier’s Melancholia is an exercise in depression. The film certainly has some artsy scenes, and the concept has a lot of potential, but I personally didn’t care for the execution.

We start on the wedding night of Justine (Kirsten Dunst) who is having a hard time keeping herself together. It’s a lavish affair put together, hosted, and paid for by her sister Clair (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). All of this takes place in the lead-up to the projected very-near-Earth passing of planet Melancholia, a rogue planet whose existence was only recently discovered and whose trajectory isn’t well defined. Will it pass by? Will it ultimately collide?

What I didn’t like. The characters are pretty much set at the beginning, and they then go for broke within that mold. Justine is depressed and nearly unreachable. Her sister Clair is snippy and bitchy. Bro-in-law John is feeling a lack of gratitude from Justine and her husband who doesn’t need much of a mention because he’s a bit player. There are some family conflict segments of little consequence, but nobody really has any kind of cathartic moment or transformation, and it’s hard not to wonder what the point of this exercise was. That said, some of the scenes were moving for the viewer.  I can’t say I’d recommend it.

The unexpected western True Grit now, was another matter. I suppose this is rather obvious being a Coen brothers film and all, but I didn’t expect this to be as light-hearted as it was. The characters were generally charming and there were many amusing moments, and it made for a lot of fun.

The story finds us following the journey of young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a teenage girl who rolls into town to settle the affairs of her murdered father. She sets out to hire a U.S. Marshall to hunt down her father’s killer Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). What she finds is a washed up drunk by the name of Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) who has a bit of a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later, and also draws the interest of LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), a Texas Ranger with a whole lot of good old Texas swagger. Mattie’s tenacious nature, while at first annoying, tends to endear the other characters to her over the course of the adventure. Though the overall tone has less grit than the title might imply, it was quite an enjoyable movie to watch and I’d recommend checking it out.