As a senior in college, I’ve experienced every feeling and emotion there is to experience. Although I’m excited to start a new chapter in my life, my days consist of a roller coaster of emotions. I’ve felt gratitude, guilt, happiness, sadness, stress, and feelings of confusion and an incredible fear of the unknown that you couldn’t possibly categorize in one word.
Moving on is scary. It’s trying to cope with all of those emotions while pretending to have everything together, standing in an ocean full of people who seem to have their lives planned out in a perfectly bound planner. It’s feeling lost.
The Worst Person In The World, directed by Joachim Trier, brings this feeling to the screen and displays it masterfully.
The film captures four years of Julie’s life. She switches from career to career, starting with med school, and then pursuing psychology, photography, and being a writer. She doesn’t know what she wants or why and is eager to find herself, as are we.
After discovering her desire to learn about the “mind,” rather than the “body” and switching to photography, Julie enters a relationship with an older man. Unsure of what she wants in a relationship, or if she wants children, and feeling disconnected and ignored by her partner, she leaves him.
Julie then starts dating somebody else and, ultimately, in a series of revealing scenes, we find ourselves viewing her as we did the first time. Through her relationships and experiences, she picks up pieces of who she is and what she cares for, but we’re left with doubt, wondering if she achieved what she wanted. The ending had me seconds away from screaming. Had we wanted to know more about her than she did herself? It certainly felt like that.
It reminded me that I was only a spectator in her world, making guesses and assumptions about who she was, just like other people do to me. In a surprising revelation, I realized that I’d been experiencing that same teeth-clenching pressure Julie felt when asked “What are you going to do after graduation?” for what felt like the 40th time.
At its worst, The Worst Person In The World is quite frustrating. However, at its best, it was beautiful and painfully real. Julie’s character was remarkably authentic and raw. It was like peering into a mirror and, instead of seeing my reflection, it was someone else’s, and I was offered a glimpse into their actual life. I could relate to her and found comfort in knowing that.
Many scenes completely crush you with their breathtakingly convincing portrayal of a woman’s life. Every character had their set of alarmingly real flaws and problems and it made me remember that nobody is as put-together and perfect as they seem.
After watching the movie, my mind became preoccupied with my graduation date approaching and the never-ending worries that are come with it. However, I allowed myself to take a second to calm down.
There’s an entire world full of people trying to find their way. If you feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t know what they’re going to be doing or who they want to be next August, watch this movie.