Nymphomaniac

Year: 2013 (Vol. I, Vol. II)
Running time: 117 minutes (Vol. I), 124 minutes (Vol. II)
Certificate: 18 (Vol. I, Vol. II)
Language: English
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Connie Nielson, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Jamie Bell, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Michael Pas

On another sexual escapade.

Nymphomaniac is not a sexy film. It is a rather joyless examination of the life of a woman in thrall to her biological impulses. Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is found bruised and bleeding in an alley by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård). When she convinces him not to call an ambulance or the police, he helps her back to his nearby apartment to clean up and recover a little. This is the setting over which Joe tells Seligman (and by extension, us) her life story and how it has been influenced by a condition she refuses to describe as sex addiction, insisting instead on the term nymphomania.

There are many sexual encounters described by Joe (played as a young woman by Stacy Martin), many of them seemingly designed to shock, as you might expect from von Trier. Sex in Joe's world rarely seems to be a thing that brings a great deal of pleasure, be it a difficult encounter losing her virginity to Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf), through a moment tempting a man on a train trying to get back home to his wife to conceive, to having sex while grieving her dead father (Christian Slater).

Slowly becoming friends.

But I don't think we're meant to pity Joe; she takes power from her sexuality and if she appears to lack empathy at times (particularly during one scene where she is confronted with the wrath of Mrs. H (Uma Thurman), who's husband is cheating on her with Joe), it's worth remembering that every single one of the men have a choice to have sex with Joe or not, so it's difficult to really judge her for the shits she does not give.

We return fairly frequently to Joe and Seligman, and Seligman has a habit of interrupting the narrative to bring up some random subject that he thinks has familiarities to the events happening in Joe's life. This can be frustrating for Joe and sometimes for us, because (and I'm assuming it's intended this way by von Trier) for every meaningful insight he puts forth, there is another that is ludicrous, and Joe and Seligman spend some time debating the merits of his various asides. As stupid as his rambling sometimes is, you do get a feeling the two of them are taking tentative steps from being strangers to friends.

As we move from Vol. I to Vol. II Joe's life story continues and Gainsbourg takes on both the narrator and flashback roles. Joe's life goes to some very difficult places through the second half, not least an extended period of sadomasochism with K (or 'the Master') (Jamie Bell). Joe ends up working for L (Willem Dafoe), a businessman employing Joe to collect unpaid debts, using her knowledge and experience of sex and desire to expose unpleasant tendencies those owing money have, leaving them open to blackmail.

Joe offers no apology for who she is. Nor should she.

Eventually we catch up to where we found Joe at the start, and it turns out she's beaten in that alley thanks to Jerôme (the older version of which is played by Michael Pas), following a failed attempt to shoot him (Seligman points out it's because she hadn't set the gun correctly before shooting).

The ending annoys me intensely. After their long discussion, Joe seems to have genuinely found friendship - a human connection that isn't about sex. If fact, Seligman has confirmed all the way through that he just isn't sexual in nature. So when Joe goes to sleep happy, for what we suspect is the first time in a long time, it is distressing in the extreme to find Seligman waking her up in the middle of the night to have sex. I was hungry for Joe to feel the contentment that can come from positive human interaction, and out of the blue, contrary to everything he'd said, he ruined it.

Joe indulges herself.

Joe may be a nymphomaniac, but that still gives nobody the right to assume they can have sex with her. Seligman's confused "But you've fucked thousands of men" as Joe, heartbroken over losing her new friend as quickly as she had gained him, calmly and sadly sets the gun as he had demonstrated not long before and shoots him, gives voice to the assumptions of men everywhere that promiscuity somehow forfeits a woman's right to say no.

It's not unrealistic, and the point it makes (men, almost always, are pigs) is an overwhelmingly valid one, but god damn it, I just wanted Joe to find a little happiness with her new friend.

Not bad films, and Gainsbourg, Slater and Thurman in particular give standout performances, but I don't have an interest in ever seeing them again.

Score:
Nymphomaniac Vol. I: 6/10
Nymphomaniac Vol. II: 5/10

I find myself in the minority, as others seem to hold the films in high regard, judging by these reviews from Geoffrey at The Independent and Peter at The Guardian (although to be honest I often find myself at odds with Peter Bradshaw).