Dogville
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Movie Reviews of Dogville
Movie Review: A Stunning, Visceral, Cerebral Gem of a Film!
Summary: 5 Stars
DOGVILLE is unlike almost any film you will see. Writer Director Lars von Trier once again has dared to pry open the truths concealed by conventional facades to examine the human condition, the plight of human survival in a world populated by intimidated individuals who only define their public identity by affiliating/identifying with the Norm. In so many ways this story with a Prologue and Nine Chapters is a morality play ad as such it is piercingly poignant and superbly constructed. This film is a minimalist film: the 'sets' are diagrammed lines on the floor, the props are spare, the action all taking lace on a sound stage that appears like a Joseph Cornell box.
The Depression Years in America, a time of gangsters, poverty and minimal communication of world events to the tiny towns on the Midwest. Dogville is a rural small town in the Midwest peopled by what appear to be good folk. Into this scene enters a beautiful girl on the run Grace (a luminous Nicole Kidman) who seems to be in flight from gangsters. The town's philosopher Tom (Paul Bettany in an extraordinary performance) finds Grace, hides her in the town's mineshaft (over the door is the inscription 'Speak the Truth'...), and convinces the townsfolk to harbor her. In exchange for this kindness Grace must do some work for each of them everyday as a gesture of good will. When the police come looking for Grace later, the townsfolk still protect her but the price is doubling the amount of work she must do in reparation. Slowly this town of kind appearing folk become wary of Grace, start lies about her, abuse her sexually and physically, and eventually fetter her as their prisoner. Tom advises her to address the townsfolk with the whole truth of how the individuals in the town, quite apart form acting as a group, have been secretly treating her: the truth will make you free sort of confession. From that point the story turns and the ending is so very powerful that even hinting at the last chapter would rob the audience of the incredible impact.
von Trier has gathered a cast of brilliant actors: in addition to Nicole Kidman and Paul Bettany, the cast includes Patricia Clarkson, Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, Stellan Skarsgard, Chloe Sevigny, Harriet Andersson, James Caan, Phil Baker Hall, Jeremy Davies, and the eloquent off stage narrator John Hurt. Despite the length of the film (close to three hours) the tension never lapses. The only true criticism of the film is some very unnecessarily choppy editing. The musical score is haunting and the final credits (von Trier tastefully opens his film with no credits at all) are presented with many of the photographs of Dorothea Lange from her Depression Series, and photographs by other artists who show the effects of poverty throughout the world. It leaves you breathless. This film is a triumph, it calls for your involvement as a viewer, and it has lessons about morality and the individual's plight in an angry world. Highly Recommended.
Movie Review: Have you ever been to Dogville?
Summary: 5 Stars
`Dogville' is a unique look at human interaction. Set in the town of Dogville where the people live in close quarters away from the rest of the world a young woman, a stranger, named Grace (Kidman) comes to escape a group of gangsters seeking her. Tom (Bettany), who feels he needs to be the moral guide to the town, feels that accepting Grace into their lives and helping her will help the town build character. So, with all in agreement, they give her two weeks to prove herself no danger to the community, and so with the help from Tom she begins to prove herself by doing jobs here and then for the community.
This small town consisted of many different people, some who embrace Grace right off and others that warm up to her over time. There's Gloria (Harriet Andersson) who is in charge of ringing the bell to sound off every hour that passes, and there's the Henson household, Liz (Chloe Sevigny) the daughter who wants to get out of town, and Bill (Jeremy Davies) the son who dreams of a better education and a good career. There's Vera (Clarkson) and Chuck (Skarsgard), the couple with too many children and not enough love between them to make it work. There's Ben (Ivanek), a somewhat slow freight man who visits the house of ill repute on many occasions. And there's Tom and his father Tom Sr. (Philip Baker Hall) the doctor.
As Grace cowers to their every command they begin to accept her, that is until they deem her more costly then she's worth and start to abuse her friendship in order to make up the difference. Their cruelty turns to brutality, but it shows the selfishness in human nature. The film burns down to a brutal ending, a surprising and controversial ending that makes this tragic tale all the more real and important to the grown of society.
The film is shot in an interesting format; the set's set up as if watching a play, with everything open and exposed, no doors or walls, just a chalk outline on the floor to distinguish living arrangements. I found this a very interesting way to film the picture and felt it adds to the air that everything in this town is open and exposed to all, nothing hidden, nothing sacred but everything shared. Some have found this film offensive, but I find it inspiring. I find it truthful and important and courageous for it isn't shy about exposing the faults in human's but gives to a dramatic portrait of the worst in all of us.
The acting on the parts of the entire cast is subtle yet powerful, Nicole grabbing her character and becoming her, portraying her for who she is, not hiding anything from the viewer. Paul Bettany also does a great job adding depth to his character, showing pure hearted naivety. But it's Skarsgard and Clarkson to me that really stand out, delivering knock out performances that transformed them from actors into people. This film may not be for everyone, but everyone should experience it, at least once.
Movie Review: Afterthoughts on "Dogville" *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished this film. I was completely polorized by the ending. Very powerful, and extremely provocative. It brings a lot of thoughts to the surface, like: Did the people of Dogville deserve the punishment that they recieved? Were their crimes that extreme? Of course, Grace went through a lot. She was raped by almost every man in the village, chained, forced to do odd jobs around the town for little pay and hardly any respect, humiliated and wrongly accused, and betrayed by the one and only person who she thought she could trust. Thats a lot for one person to carry, but throughout the film, Grace seems to maintain a forgiving spirit to the extreme. She is always willing to look past these horrible things, move on with her life, and keep the peace. Her name, Grace, is probably symbolic of this.
Later on in the film, we see a change in Grace. This forgiving attitude seems to be fading away, and human nature is taking over. This is something that stuck with me. Can one person, besides Jesus Christ, be THIS forgiving? Sometime or another, you're gonna explode or act in a way that you never thought you would, abandoning all of your previous beliefs and attitudes. Eventually, we find out that Grace's daddy is a mob boss, and she is given the chance to join him or to go on with her life, possibly to stay in Dogville and start anew. Then she realizes that she CAN have revenge. It is her right, and the people of Dogville deserve every bit of it. Grace is a whole different person here, and its very disturbing to watch. She orders her father to send out his team of mobsters and massacre the entire village, including the children. In my humble opinion, the children should have been spared, but this goes to show the lengths Grace was willing to go to in order to get back at the town. No harm comes to the dog, however.
To me, this film was an amazing character study about human nature. What forces us to turn on each other? Why is it so hard to accept others who are different from us? Can we find it in ourselves to forgive others, even when they have caused us extreme pain in the worst way possible? Or will our natural desire to get revenge and take matters into our own hands get the best of us? These are the questions and thoughts that this film poses.
Whether or not you liked the film or not, you can't deny that these questions are pretty powerful and extremely relevent to today.
I was totally captivated by this film, although it is something that I won't be able to watch again for awhile. It's that powerful. However, I highly recommend it to ages 18 and up. It will be an experience you won't soon forget.
Movie Review: A Masterpiece of Our Time for All Time
Summary: 5 Stars
I have just completed watching the three hour film and felt instantly compelled to view the reactions of fellow viewers. To my dismay, there are many who seem to have missed even a vague understanding of its depth and meaning.
I am not quite certain how to respond to this fact, so I won't. What I will say is this: This film is a reminder why we as a human race are so in need of stories. Their transforming power, their capacity to relay truth and meaning to the intricate fiber of our souls; perhaps this is why Jesus Christ was so insistent on telling parables to his listeners.
It was this film, rather than the Passion of the Christ, which communicated such an astounding and violent reaction in me as to draw tears and physical quakes throughout my body. How many films have done that? For me, this is the first.
For this is, I believe, a Christ story. The sweet, persistent, loving forgiveness of "Grace" amidst the self-righteous yet brutally sinful humans she is subjected to is a fairly direct parallel to the story of the Gospels.
Yet there is one essential difference: the wrath this town so unquestioningly deserves, it reaps - making the forgiveness of Christ that much harder to accept. We so rightly deserve justice, wrath, and vengeance. It convicts us as humans of a sin so deep within us we hardly recognize it anymore. Is "sin" even a term taken seriously today? I don't often hear it mentioned in our political struggles or in our news of war in far-off places.
There will be disagreement on this, but it deserves some diligent thought: if humankind could acknowledge this rotting sin which resides in every person, driving them to unimaginable cruelty, violence, and greed we would be a lot farther along in solving our major problems, rather than thinking up new social programs and financial solutions to bandage a gushing wound.
I'm not a minister or a fundamentalist Christian - I am a human being who responded in a very deep way to this work of art. Von Trier has managed to convey a lesson about the deepest human questions we face here on earth. These are the questions we must answer before we die. Really, what else is there for us to do here?
If you are bold enough to continue facing these questions, set aside three hours of time for yourself and you will come out an enlightened human being.
Von Trier deserves every ounce of praise thrown his way. His Dogville is a moral masterpiece for the ages.
Let's just hope by the end of his trilogy, he will have learned these moral lessons himself. I'll be the first in line for Part II.
Movie Review: A supreme masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
Following the distinguished traces of his previous six generations literary herald: Henrik Ibsen (A people's enemy) and a smart blending with an amazing and enrapturing vision of the purest spirit of the Greek Tragedy, it is not a mere casualty that Lars von Triers had employed a theatrical stage, to induce the viewer to add the necessary amount of febrile imagination; even in the simplest actions as open a door or cultivate flowers in a non existent garden.
The monumental process of overpowering crumbling of the artificial bonhomie, good will and superficiality of this peaceful and apparently inoffensive community of Dogville, will be falling down in a anguishing dropping of improper actions, false promises, tantalizing situations that culminate with that brutal rape. Under these considerations we will become silent witness of abominable corporal abuses and physical sadism, double moral behaviors, acid comments under the holly blanket of dogmatism and religious fervor (the sordid sequence in which the bells mask the aggression is simply magisterial).
Triers, to my mind is one of the most gifted directors in the world actually: In my previous review about Zentropa (1992) I remarked his visual and storytelling innovations. And Dogville represents (at the present moment, because with the genius the definitive statement is never possible), the supreme summit of his original career.
I hope you agree with me when I say that Triers reached the cathartic state at the end of the film, without stylized concessions or intellectual pretensions. And considering the fact the elapsed time is 170 min. the wholeness of the human soul (with all its imaginable and glittering morbidity and rotten nakedness) was showed with all its tempestuous rage with a minimum of resources, but talent in its highest level. The spirits of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo and Ibsen were present without any exaggeration drop.
Nicole Kidman after her appearances in Eyes wide shut, The hours, Moulin Rouge, Cold Mountain and The human stain has consolidated herself as one the most respected and expressive actress in the world. Her wide spectrum of emotive features allows to watch her since a tragic nymph to a merciless Lady mobster ordering the final orders.
Special mention to the reluctant performances of Ben Gazzara, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Anderson, Stellan Skarsgård, Phillip Baker Hall, James Caan and John Hurt (narrator) who overcame the rest of a very exceptional cast.
One of the Top Four Films in this year, if not the best among them.