I am not the first film critic to struggle with an appraisal of Lars von Trier's latest, polemical creation. How do I even begin?

"Antichrist" is brilliant and yet I never want to see it again. It is a monumental achievement, in examining an aspect of the human psyche that is so awful and unbearable that I can in no way encourage you to see it.

It is a glimpse into the darkest places of the human soul. If it is something you are able to brace, then "Antichrist" is a provocative journey into our nightmares worth your consideration.

There are really two movies here joined at the hip. In a prologue, we witness the death of a child - a death that unleashes a tidal wave of loss that will eventually consume the souls of the parents.

In the first half of the film, things revolve around a psychologist known only as He (Willem Dafoe), patiently trying to coax his wife, She (Charlotte Gainsbourg), through her grief.

Here, Lars von Trier's tone is calm and mild - the film comes in measured tones and is coolly photographed (in fact, von Trier's composed shots and subdued lighting schemes here couldn't be further from the ragged "Dogme" look and sparse minimalism he has opted for in his last few films).

Beyond the character interactions, the background of the film is bare, stripped of supporting characters, while the lead characters are blank to the point they are not referred to as anything more than He and She.

It is von Trier setting a stage and allowing the bleeding pain of grief to spill out like some naked work of psychodrama. In the raw and exposed performances from Dafoe and Gainsbourg, the pain is so raw and immediate that the tension in this film is derived from one central, terrifying question: How much grief can a human endure before he implodes?

What has utterly disgusted many mainstream audiences is the second half of the film, where he takes a marital psychological drama out into the woods and literally witnesses the destruction of all that is good and pure in the universe.

Retreating to their rural cabin in a bid to work through their agonies and confront their night terrors, He and She slowly turn on one another. He, subtle in his accusations, turns on his wife, blaming her for the loss of his son. She is initially strong, but slowly she gives in to fear and despair.

This leads to violent altercations, where she attacks him to keep him from leaving her, and where she turns sharp instruments on herself, turning masochistic in a bid to punish herself - in the most shocking ways imaginable - for failing as a mother.

What happens out here in the woods is the opposite of Eden - as Von Trier labels this cabin. This is not Eden at all; it is hell on Earth, with a husband and wife setting out to hurt one another, where all things good - from nature to sex - has been spun on its axis.

Some have wondered if there's a point to all this gratuitous violence and anger. I wish there weren't, but I think there is. Von Trier's child died, and he made this movie during his bout with depression.

This is a movie about a loss so great that everything in the universe ceases to matter. A loss that cuts to and through the heart. A loss that strips you of your soul, leaving you with no sense of pain or hope.

It's the best film you may never want to see.

E-mail: SnyderReviews@hotmail.com