The first 40 minutes or so of Lars Von Trier’s new movie Melancholia are slow and strange and hard to judge. You know from the opening montage that an approaching planet is going to make everyone slow down and get very emotional, but then the movie flashes back to before the big, slow, emotional event — to a lavish wedding where the only slow-moving and emotional element is Kirsten Dunst, who apparently has a reputation for being quite slow-moving and emotional.

And whoa nelly, that reputation is earned. At one point she gets so emotional that she rearranges all the display books in the art room. Take a back seat, book about abstract art! It’s time for this book about early 20th century figurative art to shine!

(The house where the wedding takes place has a room full of art books. I’ve taken the liberty of calling this room the art room.)

I have a hard time judging anything after that first 40 minutes because my girlfriend Lily got motion sickness from the spinning camera movements and we had to leave.

All told, I liked it!

Rating: B