There must have been at least one incident where you have been called out the worst person in the world by your partner or lover or someone you were dating. Or at least you did something that made you feel like the worst person in the world. It's not like you were a mass murderer or a war criminal. It's just that your actions hurt them or impacted you in a way that made you feel like you were the most terrible person ever. Getting in and out of a relationship with this feeling is very familiar but there are not so many films that tackle these daily trials that modern-day relationship encounters. The worst person in the world is a film that shows these in a simple but memorable way.
Our life's biggest goal is to find out what we actually want in life. About what our purpose is. Some people go through their entire life wondering but they don't find it actually as it is a never-ending quest. And there is the quest for finding your special ones. But it's never a separate process. You have to navigate through the process of relationship while you are doing the quest for self-discovery. If they do not synchronize well, the relationship can be jeopardized very easily. Here we can see Julie a girl in her late 20s, trying to figure out her career while letting herself indulge in the course of engaging men.
The worst person in the world is a film with a prologue and epilogue before and after 12 chapters. Within these twelve chapters, we can see her choosing careers, shifting through them and hoping for relationships while embarking on a new one, and trying to cope with the fact that she might be not cut out for a relationship right then while the other person might be actually perfect for her. And we can surely see how one person might be perfect for you, but the timing won't be and that will be the death of the relationship. The most wonderful thing about this film is that whoever is currently in a dating period can instantly know how close to the truth this film is. The film subtly encapsulates the feeling when you want to feel freedom, letting no one damage the taste of it, but then again you crave for a touch of love but you feel the indecision of whether you should let them enter your world worrying they might take away all you have now.
Every chapter of this film shows a period of Julie's life within a span of four years. It might be choosing careers or her dropping the career she thought would be the one or spending the weekend with her partner in the quest seeking love. Sometimes it showed her vulnerability of her as a woman of the 21st century or her being the other half of a relationship. There is a chapter called "oral sex in the age of #metoo" which tells about the mechanism of powerplay in the age of feminism. Sometimes it brought the concept of explaining things from the angle of man and woman. But in the core, it remains a story of a modern woman trying to succeed on a love journey while not being able to compromise her path to self-discovery. So, this is as much a romantic film as it is a coming-of-age film.
The chapters in the film narrated are mostly short. It felt like someone narrating their own life to a friend. The whole script felt like a breeze of fresh air. There are various noteworthy scenes in the film. But there are two scenes that are stuck in my mind. One is when Julie and her group of four take drugs and she gets high. Suddenly all her visions from her past life, the thoughts of her worse moments came alive in her mind before our eyes, in front of all the important male figures in her life. An aged body in the face of a young Julie is a scene I'll remember for a long time. And another scene was the one from the poster. Julie runs toward her new lover while the world stands still. Literally, everything froze while they passes time together. Isn't that what love feels like? Unaware of the world while both of them together!
This was the ending to the Oslo trilogy by director Joachim Trier. And you can see why this was called the Oslo trilogy. Oslo is present throughout the whole movie. The nature, the habitat of the people of Oslo, and the dilemma of citizens living in it including love life, parenthood, and middle-class problems all are visible through the lens of the cinematographer and its serine. It wouldn't be wrong to say Oslo is the fourth major character in this film.
Renate Reinsve as Julie is astounding. She portrayed the naivety of an aspiring woman audaciously. While she also carries the change happening throughout the film within herself and with others gracefully. The charm from her never ran out for a single moment in the film. And both her male counterpart in the film did an adequate job while sharing an emotional scene with Anders Danielsen (Aksel) at the end which was worth mentioning.
Director described this film as a rom-com for the people who hate rom-com. I wouldn't say it's a comedy because it had multiple tragic scenes. But for what it's worth, it is a beautiful tale of love, lust, loss, womanhood, self-discovery, and coming of age from the perspective of just a little flawed woman.