the audience applauded

Strong and Moving!

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerLars Von Trier's experimental drama is an amazing feat of film making. The story is full of brutal, saddening, and heartwarming moments. The story is told in chapters, much like a book, with little scenery. The film elegantly puts forward some very deep questions about innocence, ignorance, and morality. The ending is brutal and left me stunned.The acting is amazing. Nicole Kidman performs flawlessly. She plays an innocence girl on the run who wants to begin a new life. Paul Bettany also performs very well. John Hurt narrates the story. His voice perfectly blends into the film as he describes the characters, their thoughts, and the story.The pacing is slow but I enjoyed how Trier takes his time in setting up the characters, the environment, and the story. The runtime can be overlong for nonmovie fans, but once you get into the film it goes by like the wind.Pros: An amazing experimental film, a powerful story, great characters, amazing acting, great questions asked by Trier, and slow pacing that develops the story and charactersCons: The pacing can seem slow to nonmovie goers and the runtime is a little long at almost three hoursOverall Rating: 9.2P.S. I would highly recommend this amazing film. The story, characters, acting, and the amazing and stunning ending is what makes this film a must see.

I first saw this in it's initial run. Its stayed with me after all these years. I thought I'd give it another viewing and see if it still rings as true.The movie is set in a depression era town (Dogville) at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Grace, A fugitive running from the mob (played by Nicole Kidman) comes across the town and is befriended by the town's "leader/self-proclaimed philosopher" Tom Edison Jr. (Paul Betteny). Tom takes Grace's case to the townspeople and convinces them that as an act of charity, they should take her in and help hide her from her pursuers. To help win them over and in exchange for their kindness, Grace agrees to help the Dogvillians with their daily tasks. All seems well at first. But when a wanted poster is put up bearing Grace's picture, the townspeople's demands grow and grow. Add to the mix growing suspicions, misunderstandings, and gossip and the townspeople begin to turn against Grace eventually leading to her literal enslavement and sexual degradation. Revenge on the people of the Dogville, however, is near. It's an incredibly difficult movie to watch - literally and also because of the subject matter. Directed by Lars von Trier (of Dancer in the Dark/Breaking the Waves fame), there is no real set, very little props, and few costume changes. The film was shot on a huge soundstage with the houses and buildings of Dogville represented merely by chalk outlines. Even the dog of Dogville is nothing more then an outline. People pantomime opening and closing doors. And it's long. 3 hours - split into a prologue and 9 chapters and is narrated by John Hurt. In some ways, it's like watching a filmed play. The message about human nature and life in small town America is also incredibly bleak. I walked out of the theatre feeling pretty horrible. Many have called it anti-American and misanthropic. I'm not so sure about the first - but definitely agree with the second comment.I think I'm going to sit with this for a few more days before I pass any final judgment. I am glad I saw it again though and at the very least, it was an incredible performance by an incredible cast including such actors as James Caan, Lauren Bacall, Chloe Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, Ben Gazzara, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Philip Baker Hall.

Nothing more than a play that was filmed. All the "action" on one set with cardboard walls to show where each building was. Although the actors had to pretend to open any doors. I didn't learn anything but, in the future, to stop watching this type of crap and not carry on because it is that odd perhaps it must get better. Predictable enough that I worked out the ending with around two hours to go, I guess I kept on watching the see if I was right. Unless you are a cinema geek who needs the arty stuff I wouldn't waste your time on this one.

Nothing quite like being beaten over the head with a trite morality play for three hours, with such naked and ham-handed emotional manipulation that I couldn't find a pinch of humanity inside.This was basically torture porn for overly emotionally invested people. I give it a few points for going out on a limb with the style, but again, it just feels like something a very high college student would come up with the day before the script was due. And it was a one-trick pony, the sense of style was never used effectively for anything else. It contributed absolutely nothing to the movie.The acting was fine, just terribly dull. Never felt the slightest connection to anyone, or felt that any situation was any more than a ridiculous farce; everything happened not because it naturally follows from the characters and events, but because it had to happen to move the plot forward. Everyone but Grace is basically a hive mind who feel everything in perfect lockstep with each other, like a good fable. The brutality followed the generic revenge flick arc trod by hundreds of other movies, even the narrator just felt utterly pointless and jarring, instead of quaint and unusual.Obviously, there are quite a few people who love it. Give it five minutes, and you'll already know if you'll enjoy the whole movie or not.