A Midsommar Night's Dream...or Nightmare

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2019)

This reviewer gave Ari Aster's film "Hereditary" the rating of 5, and "Midsommar" merits the same mark for the same reasons. In the bonus track of the DVD of "Midsommar," Aster describes his goals of wanting to leave audiences "moved, unsettled, and confused" through the experience of "an adult fairy tale." But he could have achieved those goals without the long, protracted build-ups to the ritualistic scenes at the heart of the experience.
Ostensibly set in Sweden but filmed in Hungary, "Midsommar" makes use of a large, open field that was converted into the village in which an ancient Scandinavian cult practices its rites unimpeded by the constraints of modern civilization. The action unfolds primarily through the perspective of Dani Ardor, a young woman who has experienced the traumatic loss of family members. She then travels with her boyfriend Christian to Sweden where they will partake of summer "festivities" built around the June solstice and the customs of the Harga in the small village. But after they arrive and participate along with the cult, it would appear that Dani is being thrown from the frying pan into the fire.
In the extras segment of the DVD, writer-director Aster observed that he wrote the screenplay for "Midsommar" in response to a personal crisis in his life after a painful break-up. But the self-indulgence of the film went too far in stringing out the mundane activities of the village and an arty approach to the horror genre. In the interviews of cast and crew, it was apparent that the film personnel admired the auteur style of Aster. But the cast seemed to bristle at the limitations they felt from not having greater artistic license of their own in this meticulously choreographed pageant. Everyone seemed to move out of the way for Aster to take charge so that he could exorcise his personal demons.
The reactions of Dani to the bizarre conditions of her new environment seemed ambivalent at best. She never seemed to take a liking to the cult experience until the very end, when her reactions seemed forced and not believable. An alternative and more realistic portrayal of Dani would have been closer to Dorothy in the land of Oz, trying her best to remind herself that "there's no place like home." Instead, the little May Queen gleefully accepts a pagan dormitory as her new home, yet needs sleeping pills at night. As she admires her handiwork in the violent ritual practices of old, she had to realized like Dorothy that it was a long way to come from Kansas for that cathartic experience and that it now may not be easy to get back home.