This arthouse drama about a woman with severe depression bearing witness to Earth’s destruction is astonishingly engaging after an extremely slow start, despite the annoying characters. I am really not a huge fan of Kirsten Dunst or Charlotte Gainsborough and both of their characters were very irritating (on top of the bewildering fact that, for supposedly being sister here, they have wildly different accents). In fact, almost all characters were caricatures. The only two that I liked were Alexander Skarsgård’s and – surprisingly – Kiefer Sutherland’s. everyone else had some form of psychological condition.
Script-wise, this could work well as a play, I think. The material deals with serious issues, such as the dark places severe depression can take you – it may feel like the inevitable end of the world; and obvious metaphor in this piece -, suicide, and the inevitability of death. I am sure that a second viewing would yield a rich spread of allegories and symbolism that I couldn’t grasp on the first viewing.
The cinematography was stunning, with beautifully composed shots and great lighting. However, it also featured a disturbingly unstable, probably hand-held, camera, which is very grating. The score seemed a bit melodramatic.
Anyway, after some starting difficulties, this turned into a somewhat interesting drama, even though it didn’t really seem to have all that much of a direction to aim for. 3/5
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