Dogville | Review

Lars Von Trier’s fairytale world gives every reason to feel bad about being good.

Think of Lars von Trier’s newest as a piece of wonderbread without the crusts, where a film’s minimalist approach and décor is reduced enough to make a play on Broadway look like a furniture store. While the Danish director might not have a gripe with Ikea, he certainly strips away any potential distractions giving the viewer a bare essential setting which allows for a cast of vulnerable characters to capture the attention.

Von Trier first opened our cinematic senses with the realist style of filmmaking in his Dogme manifesto, here in his first of three films trilogy, he opens our pores and captivates our interest quite easily with this three hour American History lesson about the decaying state in which society has found itself in.

There are a lot of dogs in Dogville, but one would have a hard time believing this in the film,s first stages as it appears to be a place full of gooseberry goodness. Nicole Kidman’s character of Grace contains a certain level of mystery, ( The Human Stain) she first comes across as a strange animal amongst a pack of Noah’s ark friends. The dynamic of the film slowly evolves into a sustained viciousness as the humanity that once made the town special has evaporates and we are witness to a pack of wolves willing to mentally and physically rape the enslaved soul. The cast of stage players in Lauren Bacall (The Big Sleep), Philip Baker Hall ( Die Mommie Die!), James Caan ( City of Ghosts), Ben Gazzara (The Big Lebowski), Patricia Clarkson ( The Station Agent ), Chloe Sevigny ( Shattered Glass ) each contribute to a great ensemble experience with only Stellan Skarsgård ( City of Ghosts), and Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ) as a certain Tom Edison given more complex natures to their roles. But from the start to finish this is Kidman’s show, and here’s hoping that she carries on with this character perhaps in the remaining two films of the trilogy.

In his Scandinavian foresight, von Trier provides the film with a fairytale-like commentary and a narration provided by the cozy warm voice of one John Hurt (Owning Mahowny ) who is deceitful at times, but like a fireplace during a cold spell he warms the viewer up to the drama of the film and the irony of what takes place.

The touch of a perfectly synced soundtrack of sounds such as a car rolling over gravel adds weight to the realism to what is not much more than a chalked outline inside a darkened rectangle setting. Von Trier’s version of Our Town is a nine chapters and one prologue ambitious low-budget production which initially asks the viewer to play along with the idea of this high-school play feel and thereafter a lengthy discourse and a collage of fabulous moments in the States’ cultural history including its post-apocalyptic remarks make this a beautiful slap in the face to anyone who refers to this as avant-garde junk.

The film might come off as just another anti-American remark, not that is not a surprising fact to consider when the number of anti-American films has risen since Dubya Bush has been in house. Though the film is set in the depression-era America, this rotting of society is not solely an occurrence felt or witnessed in the U.S., as this happens to be a comment towards those who believe that our super sophisticated society is light years away from our attitudes of the past, which, for the record–is not. While the United States government claims they are in Irag to tend their hands, the same greed and intolerance is felt in its own backyard—the film in this lucid quality leaves plenty of room to explore the good and very dark sides of humanity.

Dogville will enrage some, but I found it spoke volumes about the state of the decaying society and this sentiment of being am“Bush”ed rings true in Caan’s presence as a gangster a la Sonny. With the film’s final screen-credits a slide show of people living in poverty, just the great feeling you want to end a film with, especially, a Lars von Trier film.

Rating 3.5 stars