Dogville **** (2003, Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany) – Classic Movie Review 1496

Director Lars von Trier’s challenging, not to say intimidating, 2003 epic is a minimalist parable playing out on a stage-like set. It stars Nicole Kidman, who gives a tour de force in one of her most graceful performances as young American fugitive Grace Mulligan, who arrives in the isolated 1930s Colorado small mountain township of Dogville, on the run from gangsters.

Befriended by young Tom (Paul Bettany), she swings the reluctant town round to agreeing to hide her in return for working for them, but they start to exploit, then abuse her, treating her like a slave, especially after the sheriff from a neighbouring town posts a missing notice, offering a reward to reveal her whereabouts. But Grace has a dangerous secret that the townsfolk will encounter.

Told in nine parts and a prologue at ludicrous, bum-numbing length, this simple little moral tale is nevertheless superbly realized in one giant, stylised studio set the size of an airport hangar, like it’s a theatre play. For all the big names, nobody has much to do except Kidman and Bettany, and it is a fault that it comes over as a showcase for the big visiting international star.

Highly impressive but somehow not likeable or moving, Von Trier’s European art movie is a true original, though you wouldn’t want another one like it. Stay for the big finish and especially the wonderful end credits sequence of Depression-era stills accompanied by David Bowie’s Young Americans.

Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, Jean-Marc Barr, Blair Brown, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Chloé Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Gazzara, Jeremy Davies, Siobhan Fallon, Thom Hoffman, Zeljko Ivanek, John Randolph Jones and Udo Keir also star.

Impressively, gaining finance from across the globe, it’s a Danish, French, GB, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, Netherlands, Japanese, US co-production. It runs 180 minutes but the cut version runs a merciful 155 minutes.

The film was in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival but, perhaps surprisingly, it lost out to Gus Van Sant’s Elephant.

Adored screen legend Lauren Bacall died on August 12 2014, aged 89.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1496

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