Antichrist (2009)

I was apprehensive about seeing "Antichrist,, but not primarily for the reason that you might expect. Yes, the film's allegations of rampant misogyny (not a new accusation for controversial filmmaker Lars Von Trier) and graphic violence were daunting, but I also heard that the Von Trier's new work was linked thematically to "Melancholia," a film I found almost unbearably aloof and pretentious.

   I am, however, a fan of the director's earlier works "Dancer in the Dark," and especially, "Breaking the Waves" (the film that made me fall irrevocably in love with Emily Watson), so I decided to  give this one a go. This movie didn't make me fall in love with anybody, least of all the characters (though the acting is very good.) It made me want to hit something. Or crawl into a fetal position and cry.

I sat through a Lars von Trier film. The world MUST be ending ...

As we all know, the world is scheduled to end in two days, right after the winter solstice. There have been many apocalyptic predictions made in my lifetime, as there have been throughout history. And every time, Doomsday comes and goes with nobody being raptured -- the husband and I are still stuck paying off our mortgage. And humanity keeps on goin'.

Nevertheless, I didn't want this pending event to go ignored. So my daughter and I watched Melancholia, Lars von Trier's apocalyptic film, to mark the occasion.