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Sexual awakening is clearly more fun that sexual escalation. Nymphomaniac: Volume II attempts to turn the chipper Volume I into a much darker tale. Though approaching interesting ideas, Volume II meanders too often without a sense of purpose to its narrative. At least we get to see one of the weirdest ménage-a-trois scenes to grace the big screen.
Nymphomaniac: Volume II picks up right at the second ended where young Joe (Stacy Martin) no longer could receive orgasms from her husband Jerome (Shia Laboeuf). Joe tries to live with her sexual frustration, but her desire is too great. A few years later, older Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg, the woman telling the story to Stellan Skarsgard’s Seligman) starts acting upon her sexual frustration in more depraved ways, including sex with anonymous strangers and S&M from a man named K (Jamie Bell). In addition, here estrangement from society has led to hear to seek alternate employment from a man named L (Willem Dafoe) who specialized in debt collection.
Volume I had the benefit of a relatively straightforward story of a girl understanding her sexuality. That backbone created a fixed point for the narrative of Volume I to revolve around. Volume II has no such purpose. The themelessness results in the story meandering in random directions. Some of the directions are compelling (such as a subplot about pedophilia), but without a cohesive foothold, Nymphomaniac: Volume II feels more like a series of vignettes. In addition, the power of the third act is diminished because the story has a hard time figuring out what it is trying to say.
Nymphomaniac: Volume II also suffers from a lack of compelling characters. Stacy Martin’s early departure creates a black hole that Volume II cannot escape. Charlotte Gainsbourg has to endure a lot of punishment and brutal sexual acts, but the story doesn’t give her a lot of new wrinkles to explore. The one exception is her business which adds L and P (Mia Goth), a protégé, who injects the most life into the story. The relationship between Joe and Seligman also fails to change and grow with each new chapter Joe adds to her tale. We learn a little about Seligman’s history, but the narrative doesn’t use that information until it is too late. Volume I had two versions of Joe, her dad, Seligman, and Jerome, all of whom had enough mystery around them to generate genuine interest in their relationships. In Volume II, all of those relationships stall or evolve too slowly resulting in more than a few narrative dead spots.
Most of the goodwill created in Nymphomaniac: Volume I is lost by the end of Volume II. By not taking any compelling narrative direction, the characters and the plot aimlessly drift until the past catches up with the present. Lars Von Trier can be at times a great director, but he spends too much time here shocking the audience instead of anchoring the violence to something. At least I learned that used riding whips are better for S&M that new ones.