Movie Review: 'Euphoria' Is a Moving Exploration of Death

Euphoria is an elegant and elegiac exploration of life and death. Eva Green stars as a dying woman who uses her death to try and reconnect with her sister, played by Alicia Vikander. How Green's Emilie is able to use her slow death to reconnect with her sister is a strange and fascinating story as told by writer-director Lisa Langseth.

Emilie and Ines have been estranged for a number of years. They are sisters, and they had fallen out over their mother's suicide several years earlier. We will come to find that while Emilie stayed close to their mother, taking care of her through a number of attempted suicides, and fighting to try to keep her alive.

Meanwhile, Ines had been off becoming an artist, and living a rather glamorous and carefree life across Europe. That simmering resentment is set to boil over, but first, Emilie lures Ines to Sweden on the pretense of a lavish vacation. Emilie wants to reconnect, and while Ines is suspicious she too is wanting to put to rest what has kept them apart.

It is not until Emilie has brought Ines to a strange mansion in the middle of a forest, and introduced her to strangers played by Charlotte Rampling and Adrian Lester, that she finally reveals why they are here: Emilie is dying, and this elaborate vacation spot is actually some sort of suicide hospice situation for the super-rich.

This unnamed place in the middle of a Swedish forest is specifically designed for those who have reached a point in life and illness where they can either die slowly in an actual hospice or hospital, or they can choose to come to this place, live out final fantasies, set terms with remaining family and die a peaceful, pain free death by some sort of poisonous concoction.

The script by director Langseth does well enough to make this place feel as if it could exist, and that is all we need really. Whether a place like this could truly exist isn't the point, nor is the luxurious opulence of the setting. All we need is enough reason to believe the place exists, and we can focus on the heart of Euphoria, the battle of wills between Emily and Ines.

The tension between Green and Vikander is palpable from the start of Euphoria, and throughout the movie. The two keep their relationship at an almost constant simmer, setting up for a few significant boils. One that is striking and unique happens when Emilie presses her little sister for details about her sex life, only to realize that a particularly lascivious encounter Ines described was taking place at just the time of their mother's death.

The turn from one moment to the next, from Emilie's excitement to Emilie's fiery anger takes place over a night from when the story is told to Emilie's angry response and the tonal shift adds depth to the moment. You could sense the slow dawn of realization in Emilie, and when she lashes out the following morning you can feel that the realization had hit her right in the spot where her resentment was strongest.

Emilie may want to resolve things with Ines, but she has also brought her here in order to unburden herself of the anger and resentment she's been carrying all of these years. While Emilie had led a life of creativity and freedom and sex, Emilie had their mother to deal with followed by her own devastating illness. It's as if her resentment had festered inside her just as cancer had. Now, she's cutting out that the resentment like a tumor in order to find peace in her death.

This is some of the best work in Eva Green's career in Euphoria. She is a figure of tragedy and sadness, but also a figure of valiance and grace. She faces her death head on, with trepidation, but also resignation. It's the one thing she can control, and in that way she regains some of her life and humanity. She gets to decide her fate. She can carry on for a while in agony, and with the weight of her lifelong resentments unresolved, or she can decide to sleep after having made peace with the part of her life that embodied her anger and resentment; her sister.

Alicia Vikander's role is a little more difficult. Vikander, not unlike in a comedy, is playing the straight man role to Green's more showy role. She is forced into a reactionary mode throughout Euphoria. She begins the movie in the dark about what is happening, then she is trapped by the location and emotional pull of a sister she loves but carries anger toward.

Vikander's biggest moment comes opposite Rampling in a scene of beautiful, heart-rending grief. These are two powerhouse actresses and the moment is exceptionally well built. The secret of Rampling's character is one I will leave you to discover, but I will say that the actress is perfect for the role, her motherly qualities, and that innate warmth and empathy that comes from Rampling could not be put to better use.

It's a shame that so few studios had any faith in Euphoria, especially now that HBO has taken that title for a television series that is making waves just as this Euphoria is finally seeing the light of day. Euphoria the movie was actually made in 2016 and debuted at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival. The film went unsold that year, and failed to find distribution until 2019 when it was acquired by Freestyle Releasing.

Now, Euphoria is receiving a VOD release at the absolute worst moment. Just as Zendaya is setting the internet on fire on HBO's Euphoria. It's yet another loss for this tiny, existential drama that deserved better in 2017 and deserves better now. Give this Euphoria a chance for the lovely performances, and the unique story of coming to terms with the end of a life.