Very rarely do I disagree with Roger Ebert (the only other occasion that comes to mind is his one-star review of Blue Velvet), but Dogville is a movie worth so much more than two stars, and it deserves to be watched. Somewhere in the Colorado mountains is Dogville. The people their live a quiet and isolated existence, until late one night a beautiful fugitive, Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives there, on the run from a team of gangsters. Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), the moral and spiritual leader of the town, is the first to meet her, and persuades the town to hide Grace, if in return she agrees to help the locals. However, things take a turn for the worse when the townspeople learn there is a price on Grace's head. Goodness becomes relative and her treatment becomes more and more slave-like in nature as time goes on. But Grace is not all she seems, and her secret is one that will make Dogville's true nature seem tame.
People will argue that this movie is uninteresting, but let's just start with how it looks. It’s unique. Lars von Trier is known for pushing boundaries, and he does just that here, visually and emotionally. The story's simplicity is reflected in the set, something that looks like an off-broadway play caught on screen. There are no houses or streets, just chalk drawings on the floor and a door or window here and there. It's certainly arresting, and it makes sure that the audience is really focusing on the characters, and not what's going on around them. That's where the movie could have really gone off the tracks: it's all so minimalistic that with weak characters-or even worse- weak performances the movie would be nothing short of sleep-inducing, but the entire cast lives up to their demanding tasks. Nicole Kidman is perfectly vulnerable as Grace, and it's fair to say that she is the heart of the film, stealing focus in every scene she's in, but Paul Bettany's Tom is not to be passed over either. There's no doubt that this is a hard film to watch, but that's not because of its long runtime at all, its because it's thought-provoking, asking hard questions and answering them brutally, one by one.
People will argue that this movie is uninteresting, but let's just start with how it looks. It’s unique. Lars von Trier is known for pushing boundaries, and he does just that here, visually and emotionally. The story's simplicity is reflected in the set, something that looks like an off-broadway play caught on screen. There are no houses or streets, just chalk drawings on the floor and a door or window here and there. It's certainly arresting, and it makes sure that the audience is really focusing on the characters, and not what's going on around them. That's where the movie could have really gone off the tracks: it's all so minimalistic that with weak characters-or even worse- weak performances the movie would be nothing short of sleep-inducing, but the entire cast lives up to their demanding tasks. Nicole Kidman is perfectly vulnerable as Grace, and it's fair to say that she is the heart of the film, stealing focus in every scene she's in, but Paul Bettany's Tom is not to be passed over either. There's no doubt that this is a hard film to watch, but that's not because of its long runtime at all, its because it's thought-provoking, asking hard questions and answering them brutally, one by one.