< Continued from page 1

About.com Rating

Soon, we meet all the good people of Dogville, a town which the friendly narrator's voice of John Hurt asks us to picture in the Rocky Mountains. There's gruff Ma Ginger (Lauren Bacall), Vera and Chuck (Patricia Clarkson and Stellan Skarsgard) with their seven children, truck-driving Ben (Zeljko Ivanek), stupid Bill Henson (Jeremy Davis) and his sister Liz (Chloe Sevigny) -- down-home country folks one and all, down on their luck but generous in spirit...

or so it seems when the assembled town ship unanimously agrees to protect Grace from her pursuers. All they ask in return is a little help with chores around town. A harrowing tale of arrogance, power, cruelty, and abuse develops.

Von Trier has never been to America and does not consider this ignorance a liability ("They made 'Casablanca' without going to Casablanca," he pithily observes.) Nonetheless, "Dogville" comments darkly on America in general and the current moment in particular. While many of "Dogville's" lessons are certainly universal, the fact that Von Trier picked a concrete place for his abstract setting mean that "Dogville" is clearly intended as criticism of the world's only remaining superpower.

It can easily be read as an exploration into the roots of violence and terrorism.

Predictably, there were many hisses at the New York Film Festival press screening. "What can I say about America?" von Trier asks in his statement. "Power corrupts. And that's a fact. Then again, since they are so powerful, it's okay to tease because I can't harm America, right?"

Make of the provocation what you will, but don't miss this completely unique and extraordinary movie by one of the world's most adventurous directors on top of his game.