Blog Directory CineVerse: From Worst Person to best modern romcom

From Worst Person to best modern romcom

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Want a 21st-century romcom done right? Look overseas, to Norway in particular, and the talents of director Joachim Trier, who helmed The Worst Person in the World in 2021. Starring Renate Reinsve as Julie, alongside Anders Danielsen Lie as Aksel and Herbert Nordrum as Eivind, it chronicles the life of a young woman in her late twenties navigating the complexities of love, career, and identity in contemporary Oslo. Over four years, Julie explores different paths in her search for meaning and fulfillment while dealing with significant personal and romantic challenges.

Reinsve's performance garnered particular praise, earning her the Best Actress award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Trier's direction, along with the screenplay co-written with Eskil Vogt, was celebrated for its depth, wit, and emotional resonance. The film's honest depiction of the uncertainties and contradictions of modern life, especially regarding relationships and personal growth, struck a chord with many viewers, and the movie’s visual style and inventive narrative structure were recognized for their artistic merit.

Click here to listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of this film, conducted last week.


The Worst Person in the World is a refreshing take on an overdone subgenre because it refuses to slip into cliches or predictable patterns we’d expect of millennial characters or manic pixie dream girls (the kind which you’d find in pictures like 500 Days of Summer, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Garden State, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). It boasts a smart screenplay filled with realistic relationship dialogue and a narrative that diverges in ways we don’t expect. “If some films look to revivify a formula rather than reinvent the wheel, The Worst Person in the World may be the prime example of how to restore fun, significance, and even a little bit of sex to the well-worn terrain of the romantic comedy,” per Pat Brown and Derek Smith of Slant.

The narrative is bookended by a prologue and epilogue and divided into 12 curiously titled chapters, making the story play cinematically as a kind of book adaptation. The film also sporadically utilizes a third-person voiceover narrator who wryly and sardonically comments on the action or Julie’s internal world.

Worst Person features two wonderful fantasy sequences: One in which Julie experiences the hallucinogenic effects of mushrooms, and another where she imagines a perfect day spent with Eivind while everyone else is in suspended animation. The filmmakers also employ a montage sidebar in which we learn about Julie’s female ancestors. These sequences demonstrate how to infuse visual and emotional creativity into a contemporary romcom.

The title is interesting. We hear Eivind briefly refer to himself as “the worst person in the world,” but we know that he nor Julie fit that description (recall that they don’t technically cheat on their former partners). Still, it’s a moniker that suggests self-doubt, blame, and—because we don’t believe Julie to be the world’s worst human being—irony.

The film’s obvious strength is, of course, Reinsve in the main role, who is breathtakingly believable, vibrant, and magnetic, exuding a joie de vivre that’s undeniable and effortlessly expressing a range of emotions throughout the film. But the biggest scene stealer is perhaps Lie as Aksel, especially in the park scene after his cancer diagnosis, when he reveals much to Julie in a heart-crushing soliloquy.

Worst Person tells us not to be afraid to change lanes in life. Julie often changes her mind on careers, relationships, and life goals like whether or not she wants a family. While she can read as impulsive, flighty, or non-committal, this character embodies the concerns millennials and young adults today have with making the right choice in a world full of multiple options and avoiding the status quo or playing it too safe. Earlier, Julie says she feels “like a spectator in my own life,” which motivates her to think outside the box.

Choosing to live your best life and write your own story despite the consequences is another significant message. The Worst Person in the World preaches staying true to yourself and shaping your life’s narrative, especially while you’re still young, as opposed to letting society or tradition dictate your fate. It’s also about being willing to take risks that could lead to regret, disappointment, or ennui or that could result in greater happiness and fulfillment. Film critic Carlos Aguilar wrote: “For our transient time here—an inharmonious symphony of beginnings and conclusions, small triumphs and big disillusions, all without a grand design—perhaps the plans that fell through, Julie’s and ours, don’t matter as much. The value is in the bravery to see the crumbles of a former dream or a past relationship and still try again in earnest from scratch; to be aware that the same mistakes may come along and that growing pains may never vanish, to embrace that we are on nobody’s timeline but our own.”

Vox reviewer Alissa Wilkinson posited a similar takeaway. “Living well is hard, and sometimes you make mistakes, and the reasons might have less to do with you than with the infinite plethora of options the world presents to you,” she wrote. “If we’re lucky, life bestows choices upon us from our youth, but we’re rarely equipped with tools to tell which choice is best, or whether there’s even a best choice to make. It’s an existential dilemma unique to our time: presented with infinite prospects, yet paralyzed by the possibilities they represent. Choosing one thing or person or future means rejecting something else — an action, philosophers note, that can provoke a lot of angst. It’s enough to make you feel like the worst person in the world.”

Lastly, the film reminds us that life is short, fleeting, and unpredictable. The sudden terminal illness of Julie’s former lover Aksel reminds her of this truism, as does the happenchance return of Eivind into her life.

Similar works

  • The films of Woody Allen
  • Frances Ha
  • Jules and Jim
  • Amelie
  • The Before trilogy
  • While We’re Young
  • Marriage Story
  • Obvious Child
  • Reprise
  • In the Mood For Love

Other films by Joachim Trier

  • Reprise (2006)
  • Oslo, August 31st (2011)
  • Louder Than Bombs (2015)
  • Thelma (2017)
  • The Other Munch (2018)

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