Review

Review Date: 2-May-04
Spoiler Rating: High
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Dogville (2004)

Like most people, I sometimes fantasize about becoming Supreme Dictator of the Universe. I see myself sternly but wisely eradicating the evil elements of society, like chronically violent criminals, thievish corporate CEOs, and people who don't use their turn signals. (Overpopulation would not be an issue under my rule.) But then I think, when the cleansing ends, where does that leave me? What toll would exacting so much harsh justice have upon my psyche and my soul? So I decide that saviors of humanity must be martyrs who do their work and then disappear. I bring this up because Lars von Trier's film "Dogville" reminded me of these thoughts. At least, it did during the moments when I took it seriously.

"Dogville" is a three-hour movie that takes place entirely on a stage. Paint and a few props serve to delineate the small town that gives the story its name, and the whole cast mills about during the show while the camera homes in on the focus of the action. An unseen narrator (John Hurt) helps set the scene and supplies information about the characters, who are ably played by a couple of famous actors furthering their stature (Nicole Kidman, James Caan), several semi-famous actors solidifying their stature (Paul Bettany, Chlöe Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson), and even a legendary actor reminding us of her undying stature (Lauren Bacall). In short, the film is surprising and avant garde, and von Trier wouldn't have it any other way.

The thing is, the pleasures of stage and screen vary greatly, and whatever von Trier gains in uniqueness he loses in impact by taking the minimalist approach. The integral, insistent magnitude of the motion picture is missing from "Dogville;" so, too, is the intimacy and tightrope-without-a-net excitement of the live performance. If the point is to make us concentrate on the ideas at the heart of Dogville, then von Trier still comes up short. His parable about a beautiful woman who finds kindness and then cruelty in a forgotten backwater of the American landscape is just too gleefully cynical for its own good.

When Kidman's character, Grace, seeks refuge from a mysterious past in a tiny Rocky Mountain town, young Tom Edison (Bettany) immediately takes her under his wing. Tom is a strapping but philosophical man with few prospects, so he views Grace as a way to expand the moral horizons of his fellow citizens and as an object of amorous possibility. Through his encouragement and her charm, they succeed in gaining the agreement of the 15 adults in Dogville to harbor and protect Grace from her pursuers. In gratitude and fairness, she agrees to help each of her neighbors with housework, gardening, caretaking, and the like. In time, the townsfolk join Tom in falling in love with her; but soon their frustrations and weaknesses, as well as Grace's unwavering forbearance, begin to pervert their hospitality. She transforms from their guest and friend into their slave, who must provide hard labor and sexual favors or else be thrown to the wolves. Throughout her descent into hell, Tom stands by in impotent befuddlement, until at last he too cannot bear the acuteness of her virtue and schemes to get rid of her. But, quite unexpectedly (since von Trier usually revels in his stars' horrible deaths), Dogville's bad nature and inability to accept Grace proves to be its own demise.

Far be it from me to doubt the moral flaccidness of the average American, but "Dogville" oversimplifies in its depiction of corruption so intense that the heroine must exchange the compassion of the Virgin Mary for the wrath of an avenging angel. (The script tries so hard that the movie's staginess extends to the plot.) Reputedly, von Trier (a Dane) doesn't dare set foot in the United States, and one can certainly see why, since he apparently views the nation as a moral wasteland where power and money are the only forces strong enough to master base human instinct. This opinion may have yielded a more potent (if depressing) tale if "Dogville" weren't so peppered with moments of sick humor (as when Grace's strength is broken in conjunction with kitschy knickknacks), which move it beyond the realm of insight and into the world of the bitter, whining, too-smart-for-his-own-good misanthrope.

Other von Trier films ("Breaking the Waves," "Dancer in the Dark") inspired indignation and exhilaration. "Dogville," however, left me somewhat intrigued but mostly underwhelmed and resistant to the moral of the story.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.