Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

“Well, that’s just human nature.” A phrase usually employed when discussion turns to the uglier things human beings do to one another, it has become so common that it is almost without meaning. What is this “human nature”? Is it a set of instincts that we all have that can be counted on to kick in when the situation is ripe? Or is it something more sinister than that – a ruse, maybe. A ruse to explain away the inexcusable, the wicked, the evil men do when they think no one is watching. It’s from this place that writer/director Lars von Trier finds fertile ground for his vicious, brutal and painfully truthful tale, Dogville.

Dogville opens with the white on black written pronouncement that it will be presented in nine sections plus a prologue, into which we proceed directly. Each section is announced in the same fashion, each with a subtitle briefly documenting its contents. As we segue into the prologue, we get our first glimpse of what will be our Palette of Human Nature for the next three hours. And an odd glimpse it is.

All of Dogville is set like a stage play – a hokey and amateurish stage play. Houses have only a window, or only a few pieces of furniture. The entire town is encompassed within a single small stage; chalk outlines serving as walls, plants, even the town dog. As we arrive on this sparse, strange little scene, our narrator introduces us to Dogville, the town, and its inhabitants. It seems that one Thomas Edison, Junior (Paul Bettany) is to be our primary focus in Dogville. We meet here in the prologue the other fourteen residents, though only in brief descriptive sketches. It is Tom we are following; it is Tom who fancies himself both a writer and a philosopher of sorts. Tom feels the need to gather the town residents, lecturing them about morality. His message is muddy, he needs an illustration. Fortunately for him, an illustration shows up right on time in the form of Grace (Nicole Kidman). Grace is on the run from gangsters. Tom proposes she be allowed to stay in Dogville – but as her presence poses a risk to the residents, her stay will be for a provisional two weeks, during which time she must prove to them that she is worthy of remaining in their town. Tom postulates that Grace can prove her worth by working. By doing whatever it is that needs to be done for the fine folks of Dogville. And so she does, working for each and every resident, proving that she is willing to do anything they ask, for only the prize of their acceptance and shelter. Grace does not know that she has inadvertently stumbled into a big, messy pile of human nature, from which nothing good can come.

The entirety of the film, and it’s a long entirety, takes place on just the one small stage. It is deliberately set to look and feel like a high school play. The dialogue is primarily made up of brief exchanges. None of the lines is too long or complicated, none of the conversations too long to be memorized. There is a deliberate and exaggerated simplicity to the entire look and feel of the film, making the events, as they unfold, ring with a horror that would be lost in a more elaborate setting. The film’s narrator (John Hurt) pushes the innocent simplicity to yet a higher level. As he mellifluously documents the increasingly downward spiral of the town, and Grace, he never wavers from the easy conversational tone that reminds of nothing so much as Boris Karloff narrating How the Grinch Stole Christmas. All of these elements of sparse, pared down simplicity somehow come together and work. The set, the narration, the spare, basic dialogue (plus a complete lack of score) – it all serves to highlight the events themselves, what is horrible only becomes more so when placed against such a stark and unforgiving background. Which is precisely the point. Von Trier spares no mercy when it comes to portraying the people of Dogville. Their actions are not hidden behind layers of words designed to obscure, nor the blanket of beautiful surroundings designed to dull the pain, nor even are they spared the unflinching, relentless narrator who documents each and every one of their actions in a tone that lays bare for all to see exactly who these people are and what they become when given power over another human being.

The overarching theme pervading the entire film is the illustration (a term used frequently by Tom) of the very worst of what we think of as “human nature”: self-righteousness, pretension, illusions of superiority and entitlement, the use of pseudo-intellectual posturing to justify actions the poser knows to be wrong to the core, and myriad others, great and small. Stuck in what appears to be the Depression – or at least an approximation of that time period – the citizens of Dogville are struggling through hard times. They are the underdogs of the world, there is no one here who is rich, or powerful or has much in the way of hope for a better future. It would seem to be a perfect town for someone with nothing to find a place, to find others who have struggled and can sympathize, perhaps even help. Yet that is not what we see. We see how power corrupts, even when it is only such a small power over one woman. The people of this downtrodden place turn on a dime from the oppressed into the oppressors, perhaps taking out years of pent up fury at the injustices of their existence on the first available person who is actually weaker than they perceive themselves to be. As the story comes full circle, we see this playing out again and again. Betrayal and abuse are justified, rationalized, accepted. And when the truth is told, when light shines on their deplorable actions, the viscous become only more so. As is so often the way, they can not accept the truth of their own actions, their own arrogant, cruel self-righteousness - once again turning their fury against the only one who will bear it.

The amazing cast that von Trier assembles does justice to his unusual vision. To play out this story, each of these actors has to essentially do without context. Weeding imaginary bushes, opening imaginary doors, raking imaginary paths – they need to do these things with absolute earnest. Not acting against a blue screen that will eventually bear some marvelous digital scenery, but with the understanding that what they do is what the audience will see. They have to be in these roles, despite the amateur feel of both the dialogue and the production. Kidman is phenomenal as Grace, giving her an air of resignation that resonates with the truth of the abused. Bettany is equally good. We understand from the beginning that Tom is a manipulative, smug, pompous fake in how he likes to present himself, yet Bettany manages to keep us engaged, and in that way we become like Grace, always seeing the worst and hoping for the best.

The supporting cast is filled to the brim with talent. A marvelous, steely Lauren Bacall fills the role of the town matriarch, Philip Baker Hall simpers as the town’s hypochondriac doctor. Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarkson, Zeljko Ivanek, Jeremy Davies, Chloe Sevigny – each inhabits one of the townspeople, each brings to their character a unique set of rationalizations and justifications. Von Trier rings every last drop of truth from these characters with both his script and his direction. Assuredly pointing both a finger and the camera uncomfortably close to the pulse of ugly human fallibility, he manages to make each character stand out as unique, while making each an accomplice to the actions of the others.

This isn’t going to be a film for everyone. The pace is not quick. The film is long. The set is odd and takes a considerable amount of getting used to. And the themes and messages are not something everyone wants to hear and watch in their evening’s entertainment. There is no question that Dogville is a not an uplifting movie, and it does not bear the stamp of any recognizable Hollywood style to make it more palatable. So no, not everyone will like it. But those who are willing to take a chance, get past the initial discomfort with the set design and find their way into the story, will be rewarded with a film rich with stellar performances, a brave and unflinching screenplay and a unique and effective look and tone. The message is certainly overt, maybe even preachy, but it works within the framework presented.

The confident directorial hand of von Trier brings these elements together into a film that is nothing short of fascinating. Fascinating both as a piece of filmmaking – the chances von Trier takes with his simple stage play format are considerable, yet it is tremendously effective – and as discussion fodder. Unwinding every strand of symbolism within the characters of the town and Grace and the relationship between the two is nearly as interesting as watching von Trier present you the tableau on which to paint your own interpretations. It’s a film that demands you talk about it when it ends, begs you to try and decipher the moral ambiguity, wants you to ask when exactly it is that circumstance fails to justify misdeeds. “Human nature” can indeed be a complex, beautiful, ugly thing. It resists the truth, wanting to be masked in rationalization and justification – only to be set bare in front of us when we least expect it. Dogville offers that – a chance to look at what happens when human beings join together and revel in the ruse that all too often masquerades as “human nature”.



*Elie Weisel


Recommended: Yes