Sadly Over-hyped

Memorable, crazy movie

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Try as I might, I just couldn't warm up to this film. The directorial style of Lars von Trier, particularly during the early part of the movie, seemed to make it look intentionally amateurish. The presence of David Morse in the story didn't help either. His film roles have always struck me as being spineless and weak willed, and to that he added a streak of unbridled betrayal to the list. This was actually my first look at both von Trier and singer/actress Bjork. Wait, I take that back; she appeared in that goofy looking feather-like gown with the goose head at the 2001 Academy Awards. I'm surprised now that I was able to make that connection.It didn't help my perception of the picture that Bjork looked like she might have been about thirteen years old. Until it was mentioned that she was young Gene's (Vladica Kostic) mother, I honestly thought she was an older sister raising him. Even more shocking was when I went to her bio page here on IMDb and learned that she was born in 1965, so she was actually around thirty five when she filmed this movie. Her youthful appearance kept me constantly distracted over the course of the story.Artistically however, the mixed genre styles of the picture was what really turned me off to it. I get it that Selma (Bjork) was in effect creating her own reality by living in her musical fantasy world, but in the real world, things were working out quite tragically for her. It bothered me greatly that the eye surgeon who accepted Selma's payment for her son's eye operation would not have come forward during the trial to attest to her character. It's not like he wouldn't have known about such a sensational case in such a small community. And why would Selma lie about the use of the money when it came up during the trial? So a lot of the plot elements bothered me to a great degree to the point where much of the story didn't ring true.The one thing I'd point to as noteworthy was when Selma's friend Kathy (Catheriine Deneuve) made her way to the executioner's platform to tell Selma that her son had the operation on his eyes and for Selma to listen to her heart. But the thing is, did Gene really have the operation performed, or was Kathy easing Selma's transition to the afterlife by giving her news that she would have welcomed whole heartedly? In that regard, I was reminded of the ending to the 1938 film "Angels With Dirty Faces", when Jimmy Cagney went to the gallows scared to die. One must decide as the viewer whether he went out like a 'yellow rat' at his friend Father Jerry's suggestion, or did he really face death with the cold heart he had always lived with? In Selma's case, I had to wonder whether Kathy's statement was the truth, or offered instead to ease her anguish at the point of death.

From Lars Von Trier with Björk in the lead role. This is the most boring movie I have ever seen: very bad and shaky direction from unbelievable angles, depressing story of an already worn out formula, the horrible music of Björk that every time there was a musical segment it felt like an endless torture, her totally insipid representation... I did not even regretted that she died at the end. Even more depressing is the fact that this is an idea of Lars Von Trier that I even had in some consideration but this is very amateur.

her performance. her dance. her manner to use the details of the role for give a delicate, cruel, dramatic story about innocence, about clash with a strange universe and the end of dream. a film far to be comfortable. not only for the clear mark of director but for a rare form of honesty who has the gift to ignore the genres. story of a woman from East who hopes become happy . and the way for define the new world. one of films who are not exactly dark or bitter or dramatic or cruel. but only a question to the viewer. about choices and decisions. about status of the other. about dreams and about limits of gestures. about loneness and about value of life. about beauty. and about truth. about importance of refuges. a film for powerful memories. and not real comfortable answers.

Trier is a polemic director who constantly looks only for the shock, but behind the shock there is a message, but sometimes even the message can be "messed up" in some (or most) of his films. Here he delivers a tragic story mostly made for the shock and make the audience cry, and even thought it's a incredibly forced movie, Trier can manage what he wants in some viewers: make them cry. The characters are simple, they have problems (mostly or only of moral, financial and of health), Björk performance is great but her character is too simple (not very well developed). "Dancer in the Dark" is a haunting film, it's incredibly simple and extremely forced, but some how, Trier ended up getting some emotion (even if in a forced way) of the viewer.