Dogville

Using a minimalist stage set, Lars von Trier tells the story of the mysterious runaway Grace (Nicole Kidman), whose fate is decided by the inhabitants of a Colorado town on a dead end street at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

Tom (Paul Bettany) convinces the others to give Grace a chance, despite some gangsters looking for her. At first the town is wary, then more welcoming--even the sole citizen who is openly antagonostic to Grace, Chuck (Stellan Skarsgard). As Grace's hunters come closer to catching up to her, the town exploits her vulnerability, basically making this a morality play; they use and abuse her in the name of taking risks on her behalf.


When Grace decides to leave Dogville, it is too late, as the town has sunk to a depravity without realizing it (or refusing to see themselves in such a way); even Tom, her biggest defender, in his skewed thinking betrays her, and yet Grace still needs and wants him.

Grace is a victim in many ways, but I feel she does little for herself and helps to enable the treatment of her until it comes to a point of no return for everyone, including herself. I'm sure this reflects the helpless reaction of many real-life abused women. Tom too, meant to be a savior, keeps her there for the ultimate selfishness of being with him, no matter how much she has to suffer.

When Tom arranges for Grace to plead her case to the group, von Trier uses the flowery narration instead of giving us, the audience, a chance to hear what she has to say. For the characters in the film, what she says is not important as they've already made up their minds.

Kidman sure is the right actress to portray someone whose "alabaster hands" have never done any manual labor. My main complaint is, as usual, I don't feel much warmth from her, even when she smiles it seems unnatural. She can definitely play the victim as she often does.

Ben Gazzara does a very good job as the blind man who tries to deny his blindness to himself. Paul Bettany does an amazing turnaround between the supposed savior to the "I did it because I was scared" persona.

The hokily used "America the Beautiful" shows how von Trier deliberately named Kidman's character. The happy-go-lucky tone of the narration, and some of its descriptions, are also jarring compared to the themes in the film--not sure if that is what von Trier mean to do. The handheld camera is distracting, often focusing on a character after they have spoken their line (it improved as the movie went on). In group scenes the panning back and forth is not timed well; it's not like this is improv and the cameraman doesn't know who is going to speak next. This poor editing was a big distraction. I do like some of the more distant shots though. And of course the toylike, God's view shots from above is an elegant view of the set.

My question is how bad is the temptation of power, even if it is an evil power, that Grace thinks her present situation is more pure? Ultimately what James Caan's character says to her is the most true of the entire movie. Although some of the technical aspects didn't appeal to me, this certainly is a film that can bring up a lot of discussions, whether von Trier made a "good" film or not seems beside the point.

Although this DVD included a commentary track, I don't think I could sit through another three hours of this so soon after watching it. With Patricia Clarkson, Lauren Bacall, Jeremy Davies, Blair Brown, Udo Keir, Philip Baker Hall, Zeljko Ivanek, Chloe Sevigny, and John Hurt as the narrator.