The House That Jack Built **** (2018, Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman) – Movie Review

Writer-director Lars von Trier’s serial killer black comedy horror movie The House That Jack Built is an astonishing movie, astonishingly vile, sadistic, nasty and unpleasant, and astonishingly clever, brilliant and dazzling. Von Trier shows off the breadth and, especially, depth of his wit and wisdom in the darkest of places. It is the serial killer film as an art movie – something no one has ever tried before, and hopefully never will again.

Von Trier just does not stop tormenting the audience for 152 shocking minutes. Matt Dillon plays intelligent OCD serial killer Jack, who embarks on a trail of sadistic murders over the course of 12 years, as he becomes a true madman and finally descends into hell. His hellish guide on the road to Dante’s inferno is the understandably gloomy, doomy and morose Verge (played by Bruno Ganz, mostly a vocal performance till the final segment). Verge has seen it all before – or has he?

[Spoiler alert] Jack’s ghastly journey takes him from killing the super-annoying motorist (Uma Thurman) with a jack (!) to the final credits that are playing (rather cheesily) Hit the Road Jack. Matt Dillon is superb in the star role, never once over-playing the dreadful role, even though he spends most of his screen time with a camera shoved in his eye or up his nose. What a grand, underrated actor Dillon is! 

Thurman is really effective as the bossy monster all the audience are wanting to see dead. I was sad to see her go, and Von Trier must have shared this view as we see her death repeated over and over. Siobhan Fallon Hogan is also tremendous as Lady 2, ie victim two, who fatally agrees to Jack coming into her home out of greed when he offers to double her widow’s pension. Sofie Gråbøl is Lady 3 and Riley Keough has the very tricky role of abused victim Simple.

Astoundingly, also, at the two screenings I attended, no one walked out. This might have been because of the film PR’s jokey threat to lock the door once the film started so no one would even try to leave before the end. More likely, folks were just sitting there dumbstruck with their mouths open like the audience in The Producers for ‘Springtime for Hitler’, as Von Trier piles horror upon horror. It must be difficult being inside Von Trier’s head. But now we are slightly. You need a shower to try to wash The House That Jack Built off immediately afterwards. But, still, the film stays with you for two or three days. It is very hard to shake off.

I’m not real sure why, but David Bowie’s ‘Fame’ crops up a lot on the soundtrack. But then a fair old amount of the movie left me mystified. There is no doubt that Lars Von Trier is everybody’s intellectual superior. The House That Jack Built proves it. Arguments have raged among critics about which is the film’s most horrific moment. Do you see how Von Trier drags you into his sick world? However, I’m guessing he would argue that this is our world, the world that we’ve built.

Jenle Hallund shares the writing credit as ‘story by’.

Bruno Ganz, the acclaimed Swiss-born film and theatre actor best known for his performance as Adolf Hitler in the Oscar-nominated Downfall [Der Untergang] (2004), died on 15 February 2019, aged 77. He was voted Actor of the Year by the London Critics Circle in 2006.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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