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I Haven't Seen A Movie This Unique In A Long While
by BigH (movies profile)
Mar 21, 2006
5
of
6 people found this review helpful
I did not expect anything of this magnitude when I first saw Dogville. "Powerful" and "brilliant" are two words that are thrown around far too much in the movie business, but they truly do apply here. I would say it was beautiful as well, and while it did have some beautifully rendered scenes, there was a whole lot of ugliness in the film to really be described in this way.
Dogville is different than any movie I have ever seen. The whole town is nothing more than a few props placed on what seems to be a giant chalkboard on the ground with chalk outlines of the houses and other significant areas of the town. It takes place in the Rocky Mountains probably around the 1930's I would guess, however, you will not see anything scenic except for one lone bush (I'm not sure if that has any meaning or not, I'm sure there is all kinds of hidden messages here). I enjoyed this premise at first, then got slightly annoyed by it but at the end, I hardly noticed. Being able to see in and out of buildings as regular townsfolk get on with their lives was kind of nice background and in certain scenes, thought provoking. Who really knows what is going on behind the locked door right next to you? This alone makes the film very unique but it delivers more within the story, itself.
The story begins as Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman) is fleeing from something and is pretty frightened. She is caught coming through Dogville by Thomas Edison Jr. (Paul Bettany) and convinces Grace to stay in town after jumping through a few hoops with the people of the town (15 people comprise this small town). At first, Grace makes an effort to befriend the townspeople and gain their trust, and succeeds. After a bit of time, because of things that happen through no fault of her own, the town begins to turn on her. They realize that her choices are to be caught by the police, the gangsters after her or to remain in Dogville (I'm really paraphrasing here for the sake of space). Upon figuring that out, they turn very nasty towards her, in almost every way imaginable and the one person she trusts, Tom Edison, seems unable to help. As anyone watching will no doubt figure out, there is going to be a twist and it turns out to be a nice one.
I thought the movie was great, as mentioned above, but I do not think it was necessary to fill 3 hours and I thought the end could have been a little more... well, just more. They could have had some real fun there. Nicole Kidman and Paul Bettany turn in excellent performances and director Lars von Trier deserves some kudos as well. Good job by all! A- |
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