Dogville

I was stunned to find this movie is rated #120 on the IMDb list of the Top 250 movies. It’s 3 hours long, and Lee and I could only make it through the first 60 minutes. It was so pretentious, so uninteresting, so dull … It’s a bit like Our Town, with lines drawn on the floor to represent houses and rooms, a few props here and there. The cast is fantastic: Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarkson, James Caan (we didn’t even wait around for him to appear, at the end). I read a few reviews, and apparently it gets even worse. Of course it’s an allegory, not my favorite form of drama, and there is a vigorous debate as to whether it is virulently anti-American or simply anti-human. I didn’t really care. All I can think is that it has to do with the cult around Lars von Trier, whose work I don’t admire. There were plenty of reviewers who agreed with me, but an equal number who saw it as a total masterpiece. I just don’t get it.