Joachim Trier’s charming yet melancholy film The Worst Person in the World shows the struggle of youth for stability and decisiveness. The young generation can’t foresee their future at the early stage of life. Life seems to be a mirage. They struggle to decide on their personal as well as professional life. When life appears to be uncontrollable and boundless, the way looks futile and feeble. It is very difficult to proceed amidst hurdles. The most beloved one sometimes appears to be worthless. The infamous existential crisis creeps in and makes our life vulnerable. The protagonist of the film Julie faces exactly the same situation. She can decide on neither her professional life nor personal. She has all the freedom to decide the way of her life. However, she can’t avoid facing the repercussions. The Worst Person in the World highlights Julie’s vivacious life as well as her ceaseless struggle to cope with it.
The film is divided into twelve chapters with a prologue and an epilogue. A vivacious medical student Julie (Renate Reinsve) changes her study course to psychology and then photography. She also breaks up with three lovers – a medical student, psychology professor, and model. In a nightclub, she meets a renowned comic novelist named Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), begins an affair despite their fifteen-year-age difference, and moves into his apartment. However, when Aksel proposes to have a baby together, Julie refuses and tells him that she is not ready yet and does not know exactly when she will be ready. During one of Aksel’s publishing events, Julie walks off the venue and meets a barista named Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) at a party. They spend that romantic and intimate night together but do not engage in any sexual activity. So, they confirm that they have not cheated on their partners. When the dawn breaks, they depart exchanging only their first names and promise not to meet again. Julie now concentrates on writing and writes a sensational blog titled “Oral Sex in the Age of #MeToo”. Aksel encourages her to post it online. When she posts it online, it receives attention from the readers.
Julie’s parents are divorced and her father does not attend her 30th birthday party at her mother’s residence. He also tries to find excuses when Aksel invites him to visit their Oslo residence. Julie has a chance encounter with Eivind at the book shop where she works. Being bored with Aksel, Julie meets Eivind in a dream sequence when the entire city of Oslo comes to a standstill to welcome their romance. Later on, Julie breaks up with Aksel. They have sex one last time before parting ways. Eivind too is bored with his wife Sunniva, whose ancestry has a Sami link, and subsequently breaks up with her. Eivind and Julie start living together.
After consuming psychedelic mushrooms at a party hosted by her lover Eivind, Julie sinks into a delusion that she is surrounded by her former lovers, her lower body is old, and she holds a baby in her lap being naked. She sits in front of her father angrily and throws away her bloodied tampon towards him. While working out at a gym, Julie watches a TV interview in which Aksel is strongly criticized by a feminist for his sexist comics. Julie comes to know from Aksel’s brother that Aksel is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer. She meets him in the hospital. Aksel is devastated by his illness and terrified by the fact that he does not have any future. Julie reveals to him that she is pregnant. However, she has not decided yet whether she will keep or get the baby aborted. Later, she reveals her pregnancy to Eivind as well. Eivind is not interested to have the baby and they part their ways.
Aksel takes Julie to the building where he grew up and what inspired him to be an artist. In an emotional conversation, he regrets that he will no longer be able to stay with her. He also laments that he does not want to live as a memory. Aksel’s health condition deteriorates further. Being completely broken, Julie walks on the streets of Oslo and watches the sunrise the next morning. Later on, while taking a shower, she suffers a miscarriage. In a jubilant dream sequence, Julie sees her with Eivind and their baby.
The film raises the most important question – is Julie the worst person in the world? It is true that she has had and ended affairs with multiple men. Most of them have been devastated and heartbroken. But, at the end of the day, it is her life and she has the full liberty to choose her lovers or the way forward. If the relationships appear to be dead, there is no point in pursuing those. Life is never forced on us. She has every right to proceed towards her self-identity. However, the boundless life can be detrimental as well. A love affair takes time, care, and sacrifice to blossom. Leaving that at a moment affects both of the lovers. It takes a toll on future life and relationships. Memories can’t be erased at the fraction of a second. It takes much time to get out of a relationship and build another yet again. Even when Julie is staying with her current lover Eivind, the news of Aksel’s illness due to terminal cancer worries her strongly. She can’t shy away from visiting Aksel and having an emotional and deep conversation with him. When she has a miscarriage, she still dreams about having a baby with Eivind and setting up her own family. In the end, she regrets her own life.
Though it was not initially intended, the film is now considered to be the 3rd film of the filmmaker’s Oslo Trilogy. Through Joachim Trier’s direction and Kasper Tuxen’s magnificent cinematography, Oslo has become a quintessential character of the film. The colorful, vibrant, and mountainous landscapes of this city are captured with Tuxon’s lenses. Throughout the film, Oslo looks elegant and extremely gorgeous. The dream sequence when Julie meets and Kisses Eivind in the restaurant and the entire city turns into a standstill is one of the most heart-touching and beautiful scenes ever shot. In this film, Oslo is captured in different moods like romantic, melancholy, jubilant, traumatic, and also celebratory. The city has become an essential character of the film.
The Worst Person in the World is largely about Julie’s dreams and fantasies. The more she desperately follows those dreamy paths, the more she gets detached from reality. Eventually, she suffers from the “Identity Crisis”. In a fantastic dream sequence, she meets her lover Eivind and they spend their romantic time together. When she suffers a miscarriage and is deeply shaken, she dreams of a bright future with her baby and lover. In spite of continuous suffering, she never stops dreaming.
The Worst Person in the World has a very important surreal scene when Julie is naked with old lower body parts and a child in her lap, and surrounded by her former lovers. She sits in front of her father angrily and throws her bloodied tampon towards him. Overall, she looks utterly vulnerable. This scene is a reflection of her own life in which she has already dumped her former lovers, and she wants to confront her father for his careless behavior toward her. Somehow, she is afraid of her past relationships.
After all, The Worst Person in the World is a film about celebrating life. Life is always full of color and vigor and very few have the courage to taste those. The significance of life lies in following the path of freedom. There is no shame in being crumbled when we have the full liberty to choose our future. Life is never meant to be bleak and mundane, rather charming, colorful, and vivacious.
Renate Reinsve’s charming yet melancholy portrayal of Julie has been admired worldwide. The screenplay written by Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt is emotional, coming of age, and authentic. The screenplay is divided into twelve chapters with a prologue and an epilogue to make Julie’s life elliptical so that her life can be portrayed in detail and separated out as per occurrences. Ola Flottum’s mostly diegetic music is mixed with classic and modern scores. It narrates and expresses Julie’s feelings and life. The Worst Person in the World was screened in competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival where Renate Reinsve won the Best Actress award. It has also been nominated for the Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay awards at the 94th Academy Awards.