Film Review of Verdens verste menneske (aka The Worst Person In the World)

 

The  Norwegian movie was released in 2021, directed by Joachim Trier, and took wide nominations for different awards. Honestly, I watched it because of the high rating in IMDb. To summarize the movie, I would say it is about a woman trying to find what she wants in her life by trying different things and engaging in relationships with different people. The main character in the movie is Julie (played by Renate Reinsve) who shifted from different study fields during university as she didn't really know what she wants. Sometimes, she thinks the medical practice is too solid like a carpenter, then she studies psychology but still not yet what she wants so she finally becomes a photographer and works in a bookstore. That is the background of the story and most of the movie is about her two relationships with Aksel (played by Anders Danielsen Lie) and Elvind (played by Herbert Nordrum). 

From these relationships, what I saw was Julie never knew what she actually wants but consistently wants to find out who she was. She expressed herself consistently but never succeeded in finding what she wanted. She first met Aksel, who was a comic writer, at a party and was attracted to him by his maturity and intelligence. However, later on, she found herself insignificant when compared to famous Aksel where the public attention was. She then met Elvind at another party, had physical intimacy and felt a new excitement. She lied to herself it was not cheating as they didn't make love but finally she left Aksel because of Elvind when they met again accidentally in the bookstore she was working at. When she broke up with Aksel, she could not explain the reasons. She just said it was the old issues they were discussing and Aksel always defined her feeling while she just wanted to feel the feeling. As an audience, I thought what she said was just an excuse about she didn't find the excitement in their relationships. Maybe Julie meant to have a causal relationship with others as she got tired and bored easily but relationships are meant to be boring and tedious. Usually, excitement comes when one knows something new but this excitement will fade when the new information becomes old information. 

When Julie broke up with Aksel, Askel asked if she knew what she would destroy and she said yes. But no one know if she truly knew because no one could tell her honesty in the conversation. She told him her leave was not about meeting a new one but that was not true. As an audience, you can tell she is destroying this very unique relationship that she won't be able to find in Elvind. And at the end, she is tired of the relationship with Elvind and broke up with him. Aksel died of cancer and she finally had a stable job as a photographer. Maybe she was still not sure of whether being a photographer was her right career or not but at least she did it. That is life, that you can be sure of anything, and what you can do is to live and act. 

Overall, the story plot is not complicated but was not boring, two hours go at a moderate pace. The movie successfully depicts the chaos and lostness in our modern life that people struggle for finding meaning in what they are doing.

Rating: 3.5/5