A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.
Much of Nymphomaniac shows off Von Trier at his best, even if there are moments of prurience and extreme silliness along the way.
Nymphomaniac annoys me, repels me, and I think I might love it. It's an abusive relationship; I need to see it again.
For the most part Nymphomaniac is compelling and achieves exactly what von Trier set out to do: a multi-faceted exploration of sexuality, in all its bizarre, twisted glory.
A provocative, engrossing, often hilarious, frequently tough picture. Not for all sensibilities but it’s among von Trier’s more playful, purely entertaining films, with insight and humour in even the horrors.
With explicit sex and penetrating philosophy, this erotic odyssey requires close attention and an open mind.
Verdict: Gruelling tale of sex addiction.
There is heroism in her descent and, with its shaggy-dog stretches of deadpan tedium and detonations of porn-outrage, there is a pulpy brilliance in Lars von Trier's film.
Relief from such tedium comes mainly in the form of tittering at some unintentionally terrible acting – most of it from Shia LaBeouf.
A surprising amount of soul for a film supposedly about base sexuality.
Nymphomaniac is fascinating as an intellectual case study. There is a heroic striving from Joe to understand her own behaviour and desires. This double bill intimate epic doesn’t feel prurient at all but, strangely, it doesn’t have the emotional kick that might have been expected either - and it ends as mysteriously as it begins.
Nymphomaniac is either the thoroughly miserable story of a woman who discovers too late that love is not just a bourgeois construct, and that you can neither entirely validate or entirely negate the self with sex alone; or it is a profane celebration of the human condition and all of its varied glories and bathetic weaknesses. You really can choose to go either way.
Sunk by pretentious psychosexual silliness, this comes close to being a primer on the Joylessness of Sex, but Nymphomaniac is never completely flaccid, thanks to the procession of actors or stunt doubles prepared to go the full-frontal distance, and Von Trier’s eye for a striking image.
Lars Von Trier gives up final cut on Nymphomaniac
Meet the Nymphomaniacs
General release. Check local listings for show times.