The new film by Joachim Trier The worst person in the world has a very authentic beauty, like watching real life unfold with all of its messy emotions, mistakes, and frustrating characters. The Norwegian romantic comedy-drama is set in modern Oslo and feels like a reflection of the city itself: both exciting and subdued. The film follows four years in the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), in her late twenties and early thirties, as she seeks fulfillment through her career and her relationships.
The film completes the informal Oslo trilogy of Trier, after Reprise and Oslo, 31. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 but also screened at Sundance last month and was chosen as Norway’s submission for Best International Film at the Oscars. It finally comes out to the general public.
Writers Trier and Eskil Vogt divided the film into 12 chapters, with a prologue and an epilogue as bookends on each side. When we first meet Julie, she drops out of medical school to study psychology, but it doesn’t last long either before the gifted former student decides to become a photographer. Finally, while working in a bookstore, she will also try writing. Though smart and funny, she seems unable to find anything to fill her, constantly yearning for something else.
When she meets Askel (Anders Danielsen Lie), a graphic novelist who is 15 years older than her, Julie thinks he might be the answer. They fall in love and move in together, but just as he is ready to settle down, she is restless. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with Askel’s older friends after an uncomfortable encounter with them and isn’t sure if she wants to have kids. While not uncommon for someone her young age, her older boyfriend would love to experience parenthood like his friends.
While planning a wedding party, Julie is attracted to Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), a barista closer to her age. The magnetic chemistry between the two actors helps convince audiences of their immediate connection. Eivind is also in a relationship, but they leave their partners to be together, believing they have found something special.
Despite the difference between the two men, Julie still finds trouble in her new relationship and, after seeing him during a TV interview about his job, finds herself thinking about her ex-boyfriend. For all the romance in the film, it’s not strictly a love story – neither Askel nor Eivind can provide Julie with the purpose she seeks. The relationships we see aren’t heavily romanticized, as they often are in movies, but more like those you might witness between friends.
The worst person in the world deals with a series of very serious topics: Julie’s career struggles, her estranged relationship with her neglectful father, and her complicated feelings about being a mother, to name a few. Curiously, Julie does not seem to have any friends with whom to give us a more complete view of her life or with whom to give her the opportunity to reflect. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand Julie’s headspace, in part because she apparently has no one to talk to about it, no friends to show us the type of woman she admires herself. . It’s a testament to Reinsve’s ability to tell us how Julie feels through her facial expressions that we have as much information about the character as we do.
Trier reflects on life, love, age, and mortality through his characters who are as messy and flawed as any real person. For anyone in their late 20s and early 30s, that feeling of longing for something to give your life purpose will probably sound familiar. The three main performances, but particularly Reinsve and Lie, express all their emotions with a very moving naturalness.
The film contains a handful of highly stylized sequences, beautifully crafted by cinematographer Kasper Tuxen and editor Oliver Bugge Coutté. The One That Stands Out follows Julie through a drug daze after she, Eivind, and some friends take the magic mushrooms she discovers in her boyfriend’s apartment. The journey reveals Julie’s anxieties about her father, aging, and his body in a very creative, if somewhat disturbing, way.
At times, the film can seem as aimless as its heroine and rather unsatisfying, but that’s a reflection of the messiness of life. Sometimes funny, sometimes depressing, it’s a heartwarming reminder that most people haven’t fully figured out their lives by the time they hit their 30s. If Trier tried to do a coming-of-age story for people in their late twenties and early thirties with The worst person in the worldso he absolutely succeeded.
Rating: 4/5
Read more: Best coming-of-age movies
