With Relationships and Careers, a Woman Navigates Several Paths

Renate Reinsve in 
"The Worst Person in the World"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

The romantic-comedy is one of those genres that has become so exhausted over the years with its tropes, that when we get such a movie that subverts what we’ve seen countless times before, our faith is renewed as we see that there are still some ideas to be found in this genre.  As with several genres, you might have to turn to foreign films from one time or another if you crave something bold and original, and the romantic-comedy isn’t any different.

This is why director and co-writer Joachim Trier’s latest film, “The Worst Person in the World,” is such a find, a romantic-comedy that isn’t afraid to mix strong emotions between the humor.  As the third installment in his “Oslo Trilogy,” following “Reprise” (2006) and “Oslo, August 31st” (2011), Trier explores romance in such a way that feels fresh, heartfelt, and very, very real.

The story unfolds over four years in Oslo, Norway, as it follows Julie (Renate Reinsve), a young woman who’s trying to establish a meaningful, romantic relationship and build the career that she always wanted. 

Reinsve, who had a brief role in “Oslo, August 31st,” delivers a stunning breakout performance that announces a thrilling acting talent in international cinema.  There’s an abundance of charm in her work as she brings forth a character who tries to figure out what she wants and how she’s going to obtain it.  She has beautiful chemistry with both male leads, played by Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum, showing an affection for them in different ways that allows us to see varying sides to her character.  In terms of which path her character wants to take, Reinsve provides wonderful work in showing the emotional strain of having to make certain decisions, imbuing the movie with a poignant gravity as we become invested in how she will steer her life towards what she envisions for herself.

The screenplay by Trier and Eskil Vogt, the latter of whom as cowritten all of Trier’s films with the director, constructs an unconventional romantic comedy that’s so refreshing in how it explores modern relationships in such a funny and emotional way.  With the movie broken up into a prologue, 12 chapters, and an epilogue, this provides the movie with a feeling of seeing Julie’s life in certain stages, highlighting the most meaningful moments over these four years that are explored.  Despite this, the movie doesn’t feel disjointed at all because, with the help of editing by Olivier Bugge Coutté, who has collaborated with Trier on his four other films, there’s a flow to the movie that makes it seem like the events are almost taking place one after the other, with not much time in between, and this creates a flawless progression of the film’s events.  Each snapshot of this time period, no matter how short or long, has something meaningful to say about Julie, and whether a story segment makes you laugh or cry, you’re sure to remember each one in their own way.

If the movie as a whole is one to sneak up on you in the topics that it explores, the strongest case is the film’s last half hour, which is the most-emotional stretch of the movie that develops one of the film’s primary relationships in ways I didn’t expect.  This portion of the movie shows a growth to the main character that gives this romantic comedy a layered view into its themes of love, loss, and uncertainty of where to go in one’s life.

With Trier’s exciting vision in the romantic-comedy genre, he adds a couple of scenes that help make this a wonderful addition to the genre, such as a scene where Renate and her friends take shrooms (complete with hallucinatory imagery), as well as a stuck-in-time sequence, with the latter being the standout of these two memorable scenes.  It’s a magical sequence in which Julie traverses through the streets of Oslo as everything and everyone remains stationary, while she goes out to spend a day with the person whom she loves at that point in her life.  Aside from this, Trier maintains a perfect tonal balance between the laughs and hard-hitting, true-to-life drama that his characters experience.  As Trier exemplified in his 2017 supernatural drama, “Thelma,” he has a talent for analyzing romance in adventurous ways, ensuring that you’ll be absorbed in the unpredictable lives of the characters.

Trier offers a refreshing view of modern relationships, and in terms of romantic comedies of 2021, “Worst Person” is the best.

Grade: A