With a title like The Worst Person in the World, I was skeptical of what I was about to watch during a rare trip back to a movie theater. But, having overlooked its screening at Sundance this year, I was intrigued with the dark rom-com drama that follows the twenty-something Julie (played by Renate Reinsve) as she sorts through a quarter-life crisis.
The Worst Person in the World is a coming-of-age story told in nine chapters. It opens with Julie in medical school, where she decides to instead pursue psychology. She takes another pivot and drops out of school, and becomes an aspiring photographer, with a side gig at a bookstore.
Julie also changes her relationships as often as she changes her career goals.
After a series of brief encounters, Julie meets Aksel, a graphic novelist played by Anders Danielsen Lie. Despite their 10-year age gap, things move fast for the couple, and Julie moves in.
Cracks begin to surface in their relationship, and Julie becomes restless and reckless. She meets Eivind (played Herbert Nordrum), a barista who’s her same age, while crashing a wedding. Sparks fly and despite some intense flirting they part ways without sharing last names or exchanging numbers.
Not long after, there’s a chance encounter between Julie, Eivind, and his girlfriend at Julie’s bookstore. Julie and Eivind’s attraction deepens, and soon Julie decides to leave Aksel in a standout scene where everyone is frozen in time while Julie runs through the streets of Oslo to find Eivind. But is that really the end for Julie and Aksel?
The Worst Person in the World is the third in Director Joachim Trier’s “Oslo Trilogy,” which includes 2011’s Oslo, August 31, and Reprise from 2006. The trio of films has two common threads; each follows young adults coming to terms with their lives, and Anders Danielsen Lie, who is the lead actor in all three.
Reinsve’s performance as Julie won her the Best Actress award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the film has received two Oscar nods - Original Screenplay and International Feature Film. Outstanding cinematography matched with an excellent and diverse soundtrack makes it a film worth watching, even with that ominous title.
Running 127 minutes, The Worst Person in the World is rated a solid R for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and some colorful language in Norwegian with English subtitles.
