Dogville
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hariet Andersson, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Blair Brown, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Ben Gazzara, John Hurt, Stellan Skaarsgard, Chloe Sevigny Written and Directed By: Lars von Trier Rated R Lion's Gate Films
In Dogville, Nicole Kidman (Dead Calm, The Hours) plays Grace: a fugitive from the Mafia who has escaped to the Rocky Mountain village of the same name. The villagers are suspicious of her until a young man named Tom Eddison, Jr. (Paul Bettany of A Knight's Tale and Master and Commander) convinces the rest of the village to take her in. To prove her worth, she is given two weeks to provide whatever services she can for the people of the village. If any one in the village is still suspicious of her, she will be thrown out of town and left to fend for herself.
It's a philosophical film that should appeal to frequent theatergoers. The title village is a soundstage filled with actors in early twentieth century period costume. Streets, homes and bushes are painted in white outlines on the floor of the stage. Even Moses, the village dog, is an outline painted on the floor. Everything is clearly labeled. There are no walls, because, as anyone living in a small town will tell you, they aren't really there to begin with.
With this kind of starkly minimalist approach, writer/director Lars von Trier is free to paint the screen exclusively with the actors. The characters are all very complex, with excellent performances by the cast. Stellan Skaarsgard (Good Will Hunting, Insomnia) plays an apple harvester with a dark sense of humanity. Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April, The Station Agent) plays his bookish, intellectual wife with a depth that is equally sweet and savage. They share the screen with legends like James Caan (looking surprisingly natural as a philosophical mob boss) and Lauren Bacall. Her screen presence is amazing, even when casually placed in the background of a shot. Bacall's overwhelming star power, however, does give certain moments in the film a slightly unbalanced feeling, as if she should be the focus of each scene in which she appears, even when she's not. Furthermore, the voice-over narration (ably performed by British talent John Hurt of The Elephant Man, and Alien) all too often adds very little to the story. Frequently repeating in plain English what has already happened on the screen drags the pacing of a film which, at three hours long, could've probably been edited down a bit.
Because of Dogville's focus on the actors, it often evokes a stage play caught on film. But the few cinematic effects present are used well. At times, the entire village can be seen from mesmerizing time-lapse aerial shots, with everyone going about their business in high-speed, bound by the white outlines that let you know where all the scenery is. In another scene, Grace is escaping from the village in the back of an apple truck. We see a beautiful aerial shot of her lying amongst the apples as illuminated through a tarp over the back of the truck.
Kidman's character goes through hell over the course of the film. Even though this abuse often seems to be her only payment for helping the villagers, she never accuses those who abuse her of wrongdoing. She doesn't seem particularly liberated, but there is strength in her weakness that shows through in the end of the film. Her story is a reversal of Christ's, but she's no Anti-Christ. In Dogville, there aren't any heroes or villains. Everyone is refreshingly human. VS
Russ Bickerstaff is a local poet and writer. His poems can be heard regularly at Linneman's Monday Poetry Night.
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