Muddling Through "Midsommar"

I didn't like "Hereditary," and I came out of "Midsommar" very, very mixed. I give director Ari Aster full credit for creating one of the most beautiful, lovingly designed films I've seen this year. However, it's all put in service of a story that feels fatally truncated, and characters who are difficult to connect to.

Dani (Florence Pugh) is recovering from the terrible deaths of her sister and parents, and stuck in a toxic relationship with Christian (Jack Reynor), an anthropology graduate student. She tags along on his trip to Sweden to visit a remote commune, the Hårga, with Josh (William Jackson Harper), Mark (Will Poulter), and their Hårga host Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren). They arrive in time for the nine-day midsummer festival that takes place every ninety years, full of strange rituals and customs.

The Hårga commune is absolutely gorgeous, meticulously designed to reflect their agrarian lifestyle and obsessions with the cycles of nature. Unlike other horror films, the visuals of "Midsommar" lean heavily on light and color, with the Hårga all dressed in white for the festival, and flowers and plant life incorporated into many of their rituals. A central event is the dancing competition to choose a May Queen, involving a giant maypole structure shaped like one of the Hårga runes. Architecture and clothing are also covered in runes and floral motifs, using charmingly rustic patterns and images. Digetic folk music features prominently. All these lovely, bucolic elements work in terrific contrast to the raw violence and sexuality that eventually come to the forefront of the revelry.

Watching the events of the festival slowly play out over two hours is very tense and disturbing. However, none of it was as emotionally wrenching as "Hereditary," or as deeply unnerving. The violent ending in particular landed with a thud. I think this has to do with the characterization of the leads, or really the lack of it. I was looking forward to "Midsommar" in large part because of its cast, which includes several excellent young actors I've already liked in other things. Here, they're playing a passel of mostly unlikeable, emotionally screwed up dullards. We know that Dani is traumatized and lets herself be a doormat to Christian, because she's afraid of losing him. We know Christian wants to dump her, but is too much of a coward to actually do it. Josh and Mark are both unscrupulous and disrespectful. When push comes to shove, all of these relationships and friendships disintegrate under the slightest pressure.

And in most horror movies, that's all well and good. Paper-thin characters are common when the point is just to deliver visceral chills and thrills. This does not work, however, when a horror film is trying to deliver more psychological horrors based on deeper emotional hurts. Watching Dani ugly cry every time she's reminded of her dead sister is borderline comical, because the movie hasn't made her sympathetic enough for her grief to resonate with the audience. Likewise, without establishing why the crumbling relationship with Christian is so important to her, those final moments of rage and destruction don't really work. I wanted to like Dani, but Florence Pugh wasn't given much to work with, and it seemed like the film was thwarting any attempts to empathize with her at every turn.

Part of the issue is also the slow, hypnotic pace of the film, and a very alienated camera that is much more interested in watching the festival progress through each ritual and activity than it is with what the characters are going through emotionally. Like "Hereditary," there are several sequences that are staged so that people look like dolls arranged in artful dioramas or tableaux, stripped of all agency and humanity. That was fine for "Hereditary" because for most of the movie it wasn't clear what the grand design of the cultists was, and the uncertainty was a big element of the film. In "Midsommar," however, the rituals are all telegraphed far in advance, and watching everyone get to that grand finale isn't nearly as shocking or moving. I appreciated the hell out of it, but wasn't caught up in it.

"Midsommar" is still fascinating, as a sort of ethnographic record of a fictional cult. I also appreciate the filmmaking craft - the psychedelic visuals, the amazing production design, and the whole presentation of this brightly lit pastoral nightmare world. I loved the fearless use of nudity, the discomfort around sexual situations, and the moments of deadpan humor. On a dramatic level, unfortunately, it left a lot to be desired.
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