Word: kidman
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...Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play Our Town, Dogville draws very much on theatrical (and literary) conventions in order to depart from more traditional cinematic renderings and privilege the message over the medium. The ensemble cast performs every bit as well as its marquee actors should imply. Nicole Kidman shows us why she should only act in art films; Chloë Sevigny, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Clarkson, and Ben Gazzara all live up to their names; and Paul Bettany, an upstart compared to his castmates, shockingly manages to upstage the veterans with a performance that should make his career...
...haircut and an Urban Outfitters gift certificate, his nerdier, uglier friends and the gorgeous blond that saves them from an eternity in A/V club purgatory. But in this particular film, that life-saving blond is an ex-porn star. The loser in question is Matthew Kidman, played by newcomer Emile Hirsh, who falls in love with his neighbor, Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), the instant he sees her. The film then proceeds to try to convince us that Matthew’s love has very little to do with Danielle’s curvaceous figure or pouty lips, but rather her ability...
What convinces us to buy into this charade? That the ensemble cast performs every bit as well as its marquee actors. Nicole Kidman shows us why she should only act in art films; Chloë Sevigny, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Clarkson, and Ben Gazzara all live up to their names; and Paul Bettany, an upstart compared to his castmates, shockingly manages to upstage the veterans with a performance that should make his career...
With a running time of about three hours, one might expect difficulty briefly summarizing the film’s plot. Grace (Nicole Kidman) arrives in Dogville on the run from some unnamed danger. The villagers take her in and then turn on her. The ending shocks and leaves the audience full of questions, which von Trier presumably will answer in the rest of the trilogy, albeit without Kidman as the lead...
...have only attitudes, not characters, to play, and these are as flat as the lines on the floor. It's not a pretty sight: gifted actors with big ambitions and nothing purposeful to do. Only two things keep one's eyes on the screen: the spectacle of the gorgeous Kidman soldiering on as Grace's regality is defiled, and the suspicion that this resourceful woman will find a way to revenge herself on the town without pity. And the director without humanity. --By Richard Corliss