Simply Perfect

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Grace is on the run from a criminal gang. She seeks refuge in the small town of Dogville, Colorado. The townspeople help her out, but their assistance comes at a price.Highly original story-telling from writer-director Lars Von Trier. The entire movie is shot on a basic stage. The entire town is there, with tape on the ground indicating buildings, walls and streets. A very basic setting for a powerful moral.As the story progresses you see Von Trier's vision - showing the worst instincts of humankind. This he does very successfully and poetically. It's almost Shakespeare-like, especially in how the story is resolved.Superb end-product, though I can see how the movie can be polarising. I am not generally into movies and directors who concentrate more on being arty than telling a good story. With the novel set, I can see how some people may find the movie pretentious. Personally I found it revolutionary, as it strips everything down to the bare minimum, prop-wise, having to rely entirely on character depth and story-telling. Quite the opposite of pretentious, as there is no style - it's all substance.

What a movie! Spare, elegant, fantastic acting from Nicole Kidman, and a horrifying, queasy plot. It's amazing to me how Lars von Trier's stripped away so many of the canons of what we expect from a film, and still made something incredibly fresh and vivid. It just works! I'm amazed that it does, but it does. To me, that's mastery.I also loved the casting, think everybody in the cast was just right for the role. Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloë Sevigny, everybody got a chance to just act, and to me the subtlety and power of getting to focus on the actors and their body language and faces was brilliant. Loved it!Finally the writing and plot. To me it felt like every word was just right. John Hurt's narration as well. I think for me really liking the cast, plus a super original take on sets and lighting, plus a beautifully written scrip, just made it all come together in a very compelling way. Must watch and recommend!

If you have never heard of Dogville (2003) you are not alone. Three hours is a lot to invest in what some call a blatantly anti-American diatribe in an experimental hybrid of theatre and film. But this avant-garde masterpiece should be seen, at least in part, by anyone who is serious about modern cinema. Danish director Lars von Trier has located the tiny hamlet of Dogville in America for many reasons but this allegorical meditation on the nature of evil and justice is as universal as the human condition, and is far more about a state of mind than a place.If you have not seen it, some facts will prepare you for what is a unique experience. Dogville is set on a minimalist stage with chalk lines for roads and rooms, no doors, a few props to separate inside from outside in this closed, struggling claustrophobic Depression-era community that is suspicious of all strangers. Originally written in Danish by von Trier, the translation to English picks up a lyrical formalism which is precise and slightly stilted that allows more time to reflect upon the dialogue. The amorphous production setting intensifies the impact of acting, and the camera-work moves around quickly from close-ups to panoptic 'eye-of-God' viewpoints to flat long-view pans, all dynamically lit to create the illusion that this is a real town.While the plot line is uncomplicated, the story is multi-layered and its interpretation challenging. The hamlet provides shelter for beautiful fugitive Grace who is so grateful she offers to work in return. The town progressively learns she is wanted by both 'the mob' and police so they increase her work hours to "compensate" for harbouring her. They demand more and more compensation with each revelation, increasing her work to hard labour from sunrise to sunset. Soon she is shackled by a leg-iron contraption, endures physical and sexual abuse in public. What appeared to be a benign hamlet becomes a hub of pure evil while the innocent and once-forgiving Grace learns about moral relativity and human failure.This extraordinary film pivots equally on the genius of von Trier and tour de force acting by Nicole Kidman. While a long film, it continuously builds tension towards an unpredictable and chaotic climax, with the various elements woven into a single narrative fabric by the expressive gravitas and ironic humour of narrator John Hurt. But there is little to laugh at in this nihilistic film about the ever-present potential for evil in all humans. It begs the question why we do not see more experimental films like this? The question answers itself: they are too risky. This film is not for everyone, but it is mesmerising, intellectually challenging, and so worth the effort.

It is a fascinating production premise of shooting on a presentational set design (that is, drawing chalk lines and bidding the audience to imagine that the walls are there). This is the stuff of theater, and Lars Von Trier forces the presentational method into that of movies, which are usually representational in design. But that's the only kudos I can give to this boring, badly written movie with overbearing on-the-nose narration, and awkward lines. Cinematography was distractingly bad as well. I believe that the idea was to simulate the feeling of seeing a stage play, so almost the entire movie is shot with extremely long lenses from 50 feet away, which feels, obviously, like you're watching a movie from fifty feet away.Now the Flannery O'Connor-like moral allegory in the story is what many people comment on, and regarding that, I would like to give Mr. Von Trier one, no two, very big middle fingers.The root of all evil is not found in poor and working class white people. I'm sure that there are bad people among regular rednecks. But why pick on them? Because they don't fit into some liberal category for pity?On the positive, I thought that Nicole Kidman was great.