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Art for art's sake?
Let me just start this review by saying, I am fanatical about film and all it has to offer a perceptive audience. I am also not easily turned off by independent, art house or experimental films.
I chose to see this movie as I have enjoyed Von Trier's previous offerings and found the concept of the action taking place on a soundstage an appealing idea. This is a hard movie to get into, as most people will have enough trouble coping with the theatre-like one stage set. However I found myself looking beyond this simulacrum and being drawn into the dialogue and superior acting talents of Kidman et al, albeit after a short adjustment period. The story happily ambles along with Kidman's mysterious woman entering the all too sleepy town of Dogville looking for a safe haven. The strangely innocent town's folk agree to give her refuge in exchange for her services in the form of menial tasks. The occasional appearance of the police adds to the paranoia of the town, who decide to increase her workload in compensation for helping an apparent fugitive. It is not all good news though; as the story progresses we are soon left with a rather bitter taste in the mouth. The characters begin to show their 'frailty' in a variety of demeaning and socially dysfunctional ways. The whole male cast are portrayed as sexual predators, all intent on forcing their carnal desires on Kidman's rather too complacent femme fatale; from this point the film takes a dramatic turn and the audience is asked to suspend its disbelief a little too much. By the end of the film I felt slightly cheated, as the running time of nearly 3 hours could easily have been edited down to a more palatable 2 hours. It really does over labour the point in certain sections, making the final third of the film somewhat of a chain around one's neck (with a heavy cast iron wheel added for good measure). The ending is perhaps a fitting one, but lacks any dramatic impact as by this time I was hoping for this sort of resolution, indeed I watched with a slight smirk on my face (perhaps not the director's intention), but for me this only showed the film had failed. I would say to anyone thinking about getting into Lars Von Trier should seek out the more amenable and perhaps dramatically more satisfying 'Dancer in the Dark'. Filmgoers who like their films with more of a bang, or with a more conventional approach should steer well clear of this one. I think some reviewers have been a little carried away in calling this film a 'masterpiece' as it is certainly NOT. In my opinion this is an interesting experiment which will please some viewers more attuned to the theatre, but even then I would say go and see a stage play, it is far more entertaining than seeing it captured on the small screen. DVD extras includes Cast 'Vox-Pop' style interviews, short documentary about Kidman and Von Trier at Cannes and a trailer. |
