Review of Dogville (2003)

This week’s review is on Dogville, a crime drama tragedy based in a small town. The unique selling point of this film is that the film features only one location - an isolated soundstage which has been turned into a small town through the townsfolk’s imagination. The villagers knock on imaginary doors, close imaginary windows and say hello to imaginary dogs. The names of the houses are drawn on the ground.   

Grace (Nicole Kidman) winds up in Dogville, an isolated small town. Aspiring writer Tom Edison Junior finds her and its quickly established she is on the run from gangsters. Whatever the reason is, we don’t find out until much later in the film. Tom convinces the entire town to take pity on her and let her take refuge on the condition that she repays them with physical labour. She offers an hour of her time to each household and the tasks range from cleaning, socialising with blind man Jack McKay to tutoring small children. The entire town starts liking Grace and love blossoms between her and Tom. However the villager’s support comes at a heavy price that Grace will have to pay as the story unfolds.

The theme of this movie is hypocrisy and greed. A line in the second half beautifully explains the hypocrisy of the entire townsfolk - "I asked you here to listen. You only came to defend yourselves." The town is unable to remove the wool over their eyes that they are happy to pass judgement over Grace’s life whilst they ignore the fact that they are every bit deceitful, dangerous and petty-minded as the gangsters whom they are shown to fear. This is also conveyed through the 10 year old Jason, the youngest character of the cast, who asks Grace to spank him whilst threatening the safety of another toddler and intimidating her with the threat of telling lies to his mother. This character itself begs the question that if children can humiliate Grace then what sympathy can she expect from the rest of the adults in Dogville. The movie is quick to prove this point in the second half of the movie, what with everyone wanting to abuse Grace physically, mentally and sexually.  

An interesting reversal of fortunes occurs with Tom and Grace’s characters. Tom wants to reach his father’s position as the moral and spiritual leader of the town whereas Grace doesn’t want anything to do with her family’s business. Throughout the film, Tom tries to establish a command over the community to achieve his goal but fails whereas Grace avoids all mentions of her family. At the end of the movie, it’s certain that Tom has failed in his attempts to emulate his father whilst Grace has unwillingly emulated her family.  

The director has made use of long takes. The start of the film spends a long take focusing on the stage setting as the narrator introduces us to Dogville. With the overhead shot at the beginning of the film, this stage setting almost looks like some Christmas board game. After Chuck sexually abuses Grace, the camera takes a spin to reflect the disorientation in Grace’s life, in terms of the hostility towards her. Overhead shots are used to give the viewers a privileged point of view. At the end of the film, the camera uses another long take to show the least important inhabitant of the town: a dog!

Nicole Kidman’s character is reduced to a mannequin giving everyone a cold, icy stare and becoming an object of sexual desire. It is only the final minutes of the film where her character gains some fire. However this flame seems too abrupt and though it had potential, somehow it doesn’t feel natural.

Paul Bettany’s character Tom had potential (from what I saw) for two reasons. One, he was fighting the hypocrisy of the villagers. Second, he wants to succeed his father as the moral and spiritual leader of the town. He succeeded to some extent in gaining the viewer’s sympathy as he was trying to make things better for Grace. Even when the rest of the characters are willing to further Grace’s troubles, he succeeds in making things better for her. Though his character attempts to stand out with his stand against hypocrisy, eventually he ends up succumbing to her as he is unable to stand up for her in the latter reels.

Stellan Skarsgård’s character Chuck is undeniably hateable. A slight scene that garners a shred of sympathy is when he first meets Grace and they talk about their similarities, suggesting that this "tough guy" has a soul deep down inside of him. A soul that is tired of fighting the world’s greed. It’s the last scene he has with Grace that destroys any good character left in him and shows that his soul has succumbed to the world’s greed. In his case, the greed of sexual desires.

Patricia Clarkson plays Chuck’s wife and Jason’s mother Vera. Vera seems genuine towards Grace at the start but slowly her hypocrisy comes to the forefront. She is quick to punish Grace for spanking her son without understanding the dilemma Jason put her through. She was quick to blame Grace for seducing her husband despite the fact that everyone knew she and Tom were in love.  

As mentioned previously, the characters of the film have merged imagination as part of their daily routine with the imaginary doors and windows. It gives the film a certain silliness which isn’t allowed in the narrative otherwise. This seemingly silly concept in a relatively grim atmosphere can make the viewer slightly hesitant or even squirm in their seat. I personally didn’t agree on one scene where Grace is molested yet the villagers continue with the charade of "imagination" and let Grace suffer the worst possible type of trauma. I believe this scene, intentionally or unintentionally, highlights a previous observation I made about the villagers being "every bit deceitful, dangerous and petty-minded as the gangsters whom they are shown to fear".

The film’s stage setting, the hypocrisy of small townsfolk and the mystery behind Grace’s character should grab the viewer’s attention but the slow pace and the anti-climactic ending could end up irritating the audience.