Review: Melancholia (15) ****

Moreover, it is the story of two sisters struggling to find one another in the shadow of an extinction-level event: the destruction of Planet Earth.

Impossible to pigeonhole, Melancholia focuses on the damaged Justine (Kirsten Dunst), a reluctant bride-to-be who seems more than a little distracted at her posh wedding where mummy (Charlotte Rampling) and daddy (John Hurt), icily estranged, continue their eternal war of words.

Then there is Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), the level-headed sibling with nice husband (Kiefer Sutherland) and child who, it becomes clear, have been looking out for Justine all their lives.

Lars von Trier never offers up any easy answers for what is wrong with Justine, he hints at her travails. Is hers a marriage of convenience for the sake of big business? Why is she scared?

Does she know more than anyone else – about the stranger in the heavens called Melancholia, a mysterious planet on a collision course with the Earth? Is this a case of life as art – she throws away a worthless marriage because she knows the future has no relevance or meaning?

Melancholia is an eccentric film – a very strange picture about mental illness, depression and the apocalypse. It asks frighteningly relevant questions about whether humankind should just accept its lot in life.

Kirsten Dunst’s performance as the insular, wilful and ethereal Justine is a revelation.