The Five Obstructions Review

After seeing the film, The Five Obstructions, I was left feeling a little disgusted. I felt that this film, created by Lars von Trier was born out of spite instead of artistic integrity. I think that this film would have been a creative and interesting piece if he had made it directly in response to the short film, The Perfect Human, like he said he had intended. This didn’t seem to be the case though. By the end of the movie, it seemed like von Trier was just playing games. He made his friend and notable director, Leth, the main actor and producer in the movie. By doing so, von Trier allowed himself to manipulate Leth into creating clips and scenes that he was completely uncomfortable with, such as filming in “the most miserable place on earth”, and creating a cartoon.
Leth went along with von Trier’s schemes because he actually believed in the integrity of the movie, and wanted it to turn out well. The viewer learns a lot about Leth through this process. We are allowed to see his outstanding creative thinking, and incredible ambition as he undertakes endeavors that would make many people squirm. Von Trier tries to put Leth out of his comfort zone during the entire movie so that the viewers can see another supposed side of him; but in doing this, we actually see von Trier’s “other side”. As he is trying to transform Leth, he is transforming himself, as the viewer sees not only who Leth is, but also who von Trier is.