Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you a drama, sci-fi film from 2011, titled Melancholia.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
Present and future mix in a series of scenes that offer a glimpse into this family's lives
before a newly discovered planet collides with Earth.
On one hand, there's Justine, who is going through a deep depression and wants to escape
her wedding to receive the end of the world with open arms.
On the other hand, there's her sister Claire, who suffers from anxiety and wants nothing
more than to be able to find a way to survive together with her son Leo.
It all began a few weeks ago.
Newlyweds Justine and Michael are having trouble getting to their wedding reception because
their stretch limousine can't cross a narrow winding rural road.
After hundreds of failed attempts that include having the couple itself drive the car, they
arrive two hours late at the reception, which is being held at Claire's estate.
She and her husband John are waiting for them at the entrance, and being the wedding organizer,
Claire scolds them for the lateness while John complains about how much it has cost.
Justine looks at the sky and sees a red star, which John identifies as Antares, before she
suddenly drags Michael away to the stables so she can say hi to her horse, Abraham.
They finally join the party after Michael participates in the wedding bean lottery.
After saying hi to everyone and having some food, a series of speeches begin.
Jack goes first, pointing out his double role as Michael's friend and Justine's boss.
He teases Justine for a tagline she owes him, but when he puts up the textless ad picture
on the screen, he shows he may not be joining after all; he also announces that Justine
has been promoted to art director.
Next comes Justine's dad, Dexter, who has come to the party with two girlfriends.
His speech starts nicely but eventually ends up throwing some jabs at his ex-wife, Gaby,
who takes the bait and raises from her seat to speak even if she hadn't wanted to.
Gaby didn't go to church because she doesn't believe in marriage, and she tells Justine
to enjoy it while it lasts.
Claire scolds her and wonders why she has come at all.
When Justine starts appearing absent-minded, Claire takes her away to another room and
reminds her she promised not to make a scene, Justine agrees after some hesitation.
They return to the party, and when a guest is about to start playing a song for them,
Justine leaves again, taking a golf cart to the middle of the golf course where she relieves
herself on the grass while watching the stars.
She goes back inside and listens to Michael's speech, which is very short and vapid.
Afterward, it is time to dance, and everyone is enjoying themselves and the music when
Leo finally gives in and says he wants to go to bed.
Justine uses the chance to escape the party again by offering to put him to bed herself.
When Claire comes to check on them, she finds Justine has fallen asleep on Leo's bed, so
she wakes her up and asks her what is wrong.
Justine confesses she is just trudging through all this.
Claire asks her not to tell Michael before leaving.
The whole party is awkwardly waiting for Justine to show up to cut the cake, but she has gone
to the bathroom to take a bath, and her mother is doing the same.
John tries to get them out, but Justine ignores him and Gaby asks him to leave her alone.
After complaining to Claire about her crazy family, John gets tired of the embarrassment
they are going through and decides to take all of Gaby's clothes and bags and throw them
outside, but a butler comes a moment later to pick them up and take them back to her
room.
Justine finally returns to the party, so they cut the cake and take some pictures.
She apologizes to Michael for disappearing, and he tells her she doesn't need to apologize
because he knows she is not feeling well and it is his fault for not taking care of her.
He asks her to talk in private and takes her to another room where he gives her a picture
of the plot of land he has acquired for their future.
Justine says she loves it and that she will always keep the picture with her, but she
doesn't sound very enthusiastic about it.
The couple starts kissing and Justine even encourages Michael to touch her intimately,
only to cut it off two seconds later and leave the room.
Michael notices she has left the picture on the couch.
Justine goes to Leo's room again, where John is watching his son sleep.
He tells her she better be happy because the party has cost a lot of money, and Justine
says she will be.
Afterward, she goes back to the party to absent-mindedly dance alone first, and then with her dad.
When Jack calls her over, he introduces her to his nephew Tim, who has started to work
at his company with a very good salary even if he doesn't have any qualifications, but
he will be fired if he doesn't get the tagline out of Justine tonight.
Offended, Justine leaves their company, and Jack orders Tim to follow her around until
she gives him what they need.
Justine accepts to dance with him for a few seconds, leaving again when he tries to make
her talk about the tagline.
She meets with Michael and Claire in another room, although Michael soon leaves to give
the sisters privacy.
Justine apologizes to Claire, mentioning she knows how much the wedding has cost, and Claire
says this is not about the money, because John is filthy rich and needs to shut up about
it.
She explains that she thought Justine wanted this and calls her a liar when she says she
does and that is why she keeps smiling.
After Claire storms out of the room, Justine cries and starts reorganizing the books.
Afterward, she goes to see her mom to tell her she is scared and she has trouble walking,
but Gaby's only answer is to tell her to stop dreaming and get out of here.
Appearing absent-minded again, Justine watches the guests dance while Tim insists on getting
that tagline.
After awkwardly staring at each other, she and Michael decide to drink some alcohol,
hoping it will lift their spirits.
She tries to talk to her dad but misses her chance when Claire asks everyone to go outside,
where the guests write well wishes on paper lanterns that are then released into the sky
and looked at through a telescope.
Back inside, Justine stares at the party, unmoving, until Claire comes in and takes
the bouquet from her hands to throw it at the guests.
Afterward, Michael picks her up and takes her to their room, where they awkwardly and
silently start undressing.
Justine asks him if he could sit with her for a while, but when he does, he starts kissing
and touching her, intending to consummate their marriage even when his wife is clearly
non-receptive.
This upsets Justine, so she leaves the room after asking him to zip up her dress again.
She goes to stand in the middle of the golf course, where Tim approaches her to ask for
the tagline again.
Justine snaps and throws him on the sand before climbing on top of him to have relations with
him.
When she goes back inside, most of the guests are gone.
She dances with her dad some more and when he tries to leave, she insists on him spending
the night there because she needs to talk to him.
Dexter accepts and hugs her while Michael watches them from the window.
Jack calls Justine over next, informing her Tim has been fired for not getting that tagline.
Finally reaching a breaking point, Justine resigns by telling Jack that he is a despicable,
power-hungry little man and confessing she hates his company, storming off as he smashes
his plate.
Moments later, she is sitting by the house entrance watching everyone leave, including
Michael.
They agree to call off the marriage, and Michael kisses her forehead as a final goodbye.
Two people approach her afterward: Claire, who says she sometimes hates her so much,
and Tim, who offers to be business partners, but Justine turns him down.
Claire is told the result of the bean lottery by the wedding planner, but since no guest
got it right, she tells them to throw away the prize before storming off.
Meanwhile, Justine goes to see her dad after watching her mom from afar, only to find a
note saying he left when he couldn't find her and someone offered him a ride.
The next morning, Claire finds Justine sleeping on a couch and wakes her up to go horseriding.
Together they ride through the woods and reach a bridge, which Abraham doesn't want to cross.
When she looks up at the sky, Justine realizes Antares cannot be seen any longer.
The reason for this is discovered a few days later: a newly rogue planet called Melancholia
is blocking the star from view, and while people like John are excited to see this fly-by
pass by, others like Claire are worried it will collide with Earth, even when her husband
promises her scientists said it won't.
In the meantime, Justine's depression has grown so much worse that Claire has invited
her to live with them for a while.
She has to guide her through the phone for her to be able to get into a taxi, and when
she arrives at the house, she is almost catatonic and spends the whole day sleeping.
Claire wakes her up in the evening and tries to give her a bath, but Justine can't even
manage to get in the bath.
Her mood is lifted a little bit when she hears Claire has made her favorite fish, meatloaf,
but she starts crying when she tries it and tastes ashes.
After she goes back to her room, Leo follows her with his computer to show her the news
about Melancholia, but Claire interrupts him, saying this could scare his aunt.
Justine says she would not be afraid of a stupid planet.
The next day, while the sisters are gardening together, Justine smiles when it starts to
snow.
At lunch, she eats jam out of the jar with her fingers, and later, while she is brushing
Abraham's fur, she sees John arrive with extra supplies.
He explains he has brought those in case Melancholia gets really close and asks her not to tell
Claire because of how anxious this situation is making her.
When the time comes to go horseriding, Claire has to order Justine to get on the horse.
They make it to the bridge and Abraham refuses to cross it again, causing Justine to get
extremely frustrated and hit him very violently with her riding stick.
After Abraham decides to lie down on the ground and Claire comes closer to stop the beating,
the girls look up and notice Melancholia can now be seen in the sky.
John and Leo are very excited about seeing the fly-by, but Claire only gets more worried,
especially when she notices the horses are getting restless in the stables.
One night, when neither sister can sleep, Claire follows Justine out of the house and
finds her lying on the ground next to the river, naked while staring at Melancholia.
After that, Justines starts showing some signs of improvement, like eating whole meals and
bathing again.
One morning, Leo shows his mom an artifact he made with a stick and some metal wire that
allows you to calculate how fast the planet is moving, but it only makes Claire's anxiety
worse.
After looking at the planet through the telescope later at night, she goes on the internet to
search for some information about it and finds an article predicting that Earth's gravitational
pull will draw Melancholia back towards it.
She is in the middle of printing it when the power suddenly goes out, and when John joins
her to bring her a lamp, he finds the article on the printer tray.
Once again, he assures him those theories don't come from real scientists and there
is no chance the planet will hit them.
The following day, Claire goes to town to buy some pills, which she locks inside a drawer
after John wonders aloud if she wants to kill them all.
While the horses continue to be restless, Claire goes to see Justine to share her worries
with her, but her sister says Earth is evil and they shouldn't grieve it.
Claire's anxiety only gets worse when Justine says life only exists here.
At eleven p.m, the whole family goes outside to see Melancholia fly by, which is a stunning
view that sadly Leo misses because he won't wake up.
Afterward, John proposes a toast to life, revealing he knew there was a tiny chance
the calculations could be wrong and upsetting Claire.
To calm her down, he makes her look at the planet with Leo's artifact, so he can prove
in five minutes that Melancholia is flying away now.
While waiting, Clara starts having a panic attack, so John guides her through her breathing
and allows her to use the artifact again to confirm the planet is smaller, meaning it
truly is moving away.
Claire cries with relief when hearing this news.
While putting Leo in bed, the sisters share a little bonding moment, and Claire tells
Justine that if she can be happy, so can she.
The next morning, Claire falls asleep in her chair as she watches John become visibly nervous
while looking through the telescope.
When she wakes up, John is gone, so she uses the chance to use Leo's artifact again and
confirms her fears: the internet article had been right and Melancholia is coming closer
again.
Incredibly scared, Claire goes looking for John and enters the stables, where the horses
have finally calmed down.
She finds her husband dead in there, he has killed himself taking the pills Claire had
bought.
After covering his body with hay, she releases Abraham and tells Leo and Justine over breakfast
that John rode to the village, which Justine finds suspicious because he could have just
taken the car.
Claire replies that someone has to ride Abraham because Justine won't.
As her anxiety keeps getting worse, Claire checks the planet yet again with the artifact
and notices how fast it is approaching.
Crying and panicking, she picks up Leo and tries to flee the estate with him, but since
the cars won't start, she takes a golf cart instead.
The vehicle shuts down when they reach the bridge Abraham disliked so much, so she picks
Leo up again and starts running away.
They have barely made a mile when it suddenly starts hailing, forcing Claire to accept she
has no choice but to go back to the house and stay there.
After putting Leo to bed, the sisters discuss how they should receive the end of the world.
Claire says they could drink some wine together on the terrace, but Justine calls the plan
stupid and leaves Claire crying and commenting on how much she hates her sometimes.
Justine goes outside and finds Leo watching Abraham, who just returned to the house.
He admits being afraid of the planet because his dad said there is nothing to do and nowhere
to hide, so Justine tries to provide some comfort by telling him she knows how to build
a magic cave.
The two of them go to pick up some sticks and branches that they use to build the cave
in the form of a teepee without a canvas in the middle of the golf course.
Justine makes Leo and Claire sit inside before joining them and adding the last stick to
their "cave".
Now they are all together, the family holds hands and waits for the planet to arrive.
Claire can't stop crying, Leo looks calm because he believes in magic, and Justine never stops
looking stoic as Melancholia finally enters the orbit and collides with Earth, ending
all life as they know it.