It's great but also it sucks a bit

A small, domestic, and ultimately Scandinavian tale of mental illness spoiling an otherwise glamorous wedding morphs spectacularly and quite inexplicably into an epic orgy of planetary annihilation.

I was mesmerised, I was moved, I was intrigued, I was afraid, I cried, I cringed, and I was, at times, very, very bored. Melancholia contains some of the best highs (an awesome, mind-expanding creative vision) and worst lows (some fairly embarrassing, student-improvy dialogue) to be found in cinema. What we're dealing with here is basically an opera (Von Trier should direct one soon) without the singing, and so we have all of the sheer beauty and grandeur, but also all of the silliness that entails.

But ultimately, I was moved by this film - by the scale of its very-nearly-realised ambition, by its terrifyingly bleak, merciless universal view, and by Von Trier's relentless dedication to the most difficult, darkest corners of the human imagination (which, impressively, he manages to explore without resorting to Horror). Also I now like Wagner.

It's possible that part of the film's success for me was down to Charlotte Gainsbourgh. A glowing, tender, entirely unassuming screen presence, Gainsbourgh fits Von Trier like a glove, possessing the ability to open up some sorrowful part of herself for the camera and suffer; beautifully, authentically, and on cue. And Dunst won the best actress gong at Cannes? I don't think so. Charlotte is something quite special.

Cinema viewing recommended - the end of the world demands a big big screen.