Thoughts on 'The Worst Person in the World:' Choosing Yourself Isn’t Evil

I love getting movie suggestions. When someone recommends a film, I don’t brush it off. Movies feel like little windows into a person’s soul. What someone loves says something about how they see the world.

I don’t usually watch many foreign films, but this one was described to me as “gut-wrenching,” and that was enough to convince me.

I’m not normally drawn to movies about the quiet, ordinary parts of life. I like big stories; I like drama. I like Gone Girl-level chaos. But this movie worked for me because the main character felt like a real person. She wasn’t outrageous or theatrical. Watching her made me think, " Why did anyone decide to make a movie about this?”

I think it’s because her story is the story so many of us live: figuring out what you want to do, who you are, who you love, what you tolerate, and how you want to spend your days before they are just memories.

While I watched, I kept trying to decide who the worst person in the world actually was. Was it Julie? One of her lovers? Her father? Or was it me, trying to force her into a box?

I realized how often I play morality police with human lives, assigning labels in my head like “good” or “bad,” when most people are just people. I’ve been a good person, and I’ve been a bad person. Some schools of thought teach that you can only be one or the other. But I don’t think that’s true. I think we just are who we are.

I think the title of the movie comes from a fear many of us have when we put our needs ahead of someone else’s. We worry that choosing ourselves makes us the worst people in the world. The worst for leaving. The worst for moving on. The worst for wanting more. But it reminded me of a quote I keep seeing: nobody is coming to save you.

At some point, you have to climb out of your own hole. You can’t drag someone else out of theirs, and you can’t ask them to be the rope that keeps you from falling. You can’t cling to someone forever, and they can’t cling to you either.

Maybe life is just two people riding bikes side by side, moving in the same direction for as long as they can. And when you realize you’re no longer keeping up with one another, maybe one needs to go in a different direction, or go their own pace.

Not because either of you is the worst person in the world, just because you’re human.

I talk about my personal life a lot in movie reviews, but hello, it’s my movie blog, and I’ve got a lot of relatable source material. I used to try to ride my metaphorical bike to keep up with people. I didn’t want them to get left behind, so I would tether their bike to mine and pull them behind me, or I would have such a hard time keeping up with them that I would exhaust myself. It wasn’t until I relized that I didn’t have to stay on the bike path that I didn’t care for that my life got better.

Sometimes a solo adventure that you chose is better than having lived a life that wasn’t yours. So take the path less travelled, or take the one that is well travelled. I don’t care; as long as you take it with certainty and comfort in who you are.

Safe travels.