Honestly, the first time I sat down to watch The Worst Person in the World movie, I expected to hate Julie. The title basically dares you to. We’ve all met that person—the one who switches majors three times in a week, dumps a perfectly "nice guy" because she’s bored, and crashes a wedding just to see if she can feel something.
But then, about twenty minutes in, it hits you. Julie isn't a villain. She’s just... us.
Directed by Joachim Trier, this 2021 Norwegian masterpiece didn't just win Renate Reinsve a Best Actress award at Cannes; it became the definitive "millennial crisis" film. It’s the final entry in Trier’s Oslo Trilogy (following Reprise and Oslo, August 31st), and it manages to be both a sparkling romantic comedy and a devastatingly quiet drama about the horror of time passing.
What Actually Happens in The Worst Person in the World?
The movie is structured into 12 chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue. It sounds formal, but it feels like flipping through a diary. We meet Julie on the cusp of 30. She starts in med school because she’s smart. Then she decides she’s actually interested in the "mind," so she switches to psychology. Before you can blink, she’s a photographer.
It's a whirlwind of "becoming."
Then comes Aksel. He’s an older, successful underground comic book artist played by the incredible Anders Danielsen Lie. They fall in love. It’s cozy. It’s stable. But Aksel is 40 and wants kids. Julie? She’s 29 and feels like she hasn't even started her own life yet.
Then comes the "wedding crash."
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Julie leaves a party for Aksel’s book launch because she feels like an "accessory" to his success. She wanders into a random wedding reception, meets a guy named Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), and they spend the whole night testing the boundaries of "cheating" without actually doing it. It’s one of the most electric, intimate sequences put to film. Eventually, the cracks in her life with Aksel become canyons.
The Scene Everyone Remembers
You know the one. Julie decides she wants Eivind. She flips a light switch in her kitchen, and suddenly, the entire world freezes. Literally.
Cars stop in the street. Pedestrians are frozen mid-step. Water stays suspended in the air. Julie runs through the streets of Oslo, past the stillness of her old life, to find Eivind at his job. They kiss. The world stays frozen. It’s a gorgeous, cinematic representation of that specific rush when you decide to blow up your life for something new.
But the movie is too smart to leave it there.
Eventually, the light switch flips back. Reality rushes in. The breakup with Aksel is brutal because it isn't based on hate. It’s based on the fact that they are simply at different stages of life. Aksel is looking at the finish line; Julie is still trying to find the starting blocks.
Is Julie Really the "Worst Person"?
The title is a bit of a joke. In Norway, saying you feel like the "worst person in the world" is a common way to describe that specific guilt of being a privileged person who still isn't happy.
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Julie feels like a failure because she can't commit. She’s surrounded by people who have "found their thing." Her father is emotionally distant and barely cares about her birthday. She feels like a supporting character in her own life.
There's a deep dive into Julie's psyche during a mushroom trip sequence that is both hilarious and terrifying. She sees her body aging, her father mocking her, and her own face melting. It’s a literal manifestation of the "millennial angst" that critics love to talk about—the fear that if you don't choose the perfect path right now, you’ve wasted your one shot at existing.
The Shift to the Ending
The final act of The Worst Person in the World movie takes a sharp turn. It stops being a rom-com. Aksel gets sick. Pancreatic cancer.
Suddenly, the "problems" of the first half of the movie feel both tiny and massive. Julie spends time with him in the hospital, and these scenes are some of the most moving parts of the film. Aksel laments the loss of "physical things"—records, books, the way culture used to feel permanent.
"I grew up in a time when culture was passed on through objects," Aksel says. "They were part of us."
It’s a gut-punch for anyone who feels like life is now just a series of digital ghosts. Julie also discovers she’s pregnant with Eivind’s child, adding another layer of "what now?" to her already chaotic internal map.
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The Ending Explained (Simply)
People always ask what the ending of The Worst Person in the World means. Julie miscarries—a moment she meets with a complicated mix of grief and relief.
The epilogue shows her some time later. She’s a still photographer on a film set. She looks through a window and sees Eivind. He’s with a new woman and a young child. He looks happy. Julie looks at him, and for the first time, she doesn't look like she wants to run toward him or away from him.
She just watches.
She’s alone, but she’s working. She’s "on her own timeline." She isn't an actress playing a part in a man’s story anymore; she’s the one behind the lens, capturing the world as it is. It’s not a "happy" ending in the Hollywood sense, but it’s a settled one.
Key Takeaways for Your Next Watch
If you're planning to revisit this or watch it for the first time, keep these points in mind:
- Watch the background: The way Oslo is filmed changes as Julie’s mood shifts. It goes from bright and expansive to cramped and cold.
- Aksel vs. Eivind: They aren't just love interests. They represent different paths. Aksel is intellectual depth and baggage; Eivind is "living in the moment" and simplicity.
- The Soundtrack: Pay attention to how Harry Nilsson and Art Garfunkel are used to punctuate Julie’s isolation.
The beauty of this film is that it doesn't give you a roadmap. It just tells you that it’s okay to be lost for a while. You aren't the worst person in the world for not having your life figured out at 30.
To really appreciate the craft here, I'd suggest looking into Joachim Trier’s earlier work, especially Oslo, August 31st. It’s much darker, but it shares that same DNA of feeling "out of step" with the rest of the world. Understanding that lineage makes Julie’s journey feel even more earned.