While there’s no shortage of films that depict characters grappling with depression, it’s rare to find ones that truly capture the complexity of the condition with empathy and understanding. Too often, it’s portrayed superficially, added merely to heighten the drama. Fortunately, Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” (2011) is a rare exception that seems to understand how painful and debilitating the illness can be.

The film opens with music from Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” accompanying an 8-minute sequence of slow-motion shots that effectively serves as a symbolic summary of the entire narrative. It’s a haunting sequence filled with some of the film’s most memorable shots, like the one where Justine (Kirsten Dunst), in her wedding dress, is floating in a pond, holding flowers, like Ophelia. This dreamlike montage ends with an ominous shot of Earth crashing into a much larger planet. Thus, the movie makes it...