The first adjective that could begin to describe Lars von Trier's new film "Dogville" is "striking." The instance is the opening scene, which is a downward shot on a soundstage with chalked outlines of houses with labels and minimal props, perhaps a desk or a wall. We are introduced to the citizens in this small Rocky Mountain enclave by a good-humored and unobtrusive narrator.
The crux of the film begins and ends with Grace (Nicole Kidman), who wants to hide out from mobsters for reasons unknown until the end. Tom Edison Jr. (Paul Bettany) is the town's self-proclaimed philosopher who convinces the town to hide Grace in exchange for work. At first she is rejected, then slowly she gains the town's acceptance. But soon acceptance becomes reliance, and worse. The characters eventually become as exposed as the stage. It is impossible to decide at which point life in Dogville goes awry.
The beginning shot is disarming - we are not allowed to rely on normal film cues of setting. The actors have to do all of the work, and these actors are quite adept. Bettany is superb. The film relies on him because he must gain the audience's trust along with Grace's. Grace's complexity is not revealed to the audience in the beginning, yet must be acted with the truth in mind. Kidman ultimately achieved an unequivocal level of understanding of her character, this character that the audience is appalled both with and at.
The cast is loaded with traditional heavy hitters, such as Lauren Bacall and Patricia Clarkson. Not surprisingly, many of the actors have had extensive stage work. It would be easy for the acting to buckle under the weight of such a long and emotionally dark film, but the actors are convincing until the very end.
The use of the stage was absolutely masterful. It has this duality because, on the one hand, everything is hyper-exposed. Yet we come to learn that things are still buried, or there is a conscious decision to ignore even that which can be seen. It also gives the audience an interesting role in the movie. We are on the stage, privy to what is happening and we become culpable to the heinousness that unfolds. Here the film becomes almost allegorical, or even a microcosm of real-life.
"Dogville" achieves something extremely unique - you understand that this is a film riddled with anti-American sentiment, yet it is hard to determine exactly where it comes from. Maybe it is that the town of Dogville is illusionary and vindictive. The movie gains its voice in nuances. It is a mix of draconian naturalism and Edgar Lee Masters's "Spoon River Anthology."
The message of "Dogville" is hard to intellectually grasp, but emotionally it is clear. Perhaps it is that human nature is arrogant, self-serving and entrenched - that there is no way to change human nature except to destroy it. Dogville, and thus America, is iconoclastic and brutal. The message is not a hopeful one, and is probably self-destructive. Von Trier is contemptuous. Either we understand the truth of the world around us and are apathetic or impotent, or we have been duped by America's scintillating fallaciousness.
