Manderlay Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)November 21st, 2005
Manderlay
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 2.5 out of 4
Director: Lars von Trier
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach De Bankole, Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover, Lauren Bacall
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
MPAA Classification: Not Rated (but certainly an R-level film, with bizarre sex and violence)
Lars von Trier is making it a near impossible task to enjoy his films. I wanted to like Manderlay, I really did. And strangely, I almost enjoyed it. Though "enjoy" is certainly the wrong choice of wording. "Appreciate" is more likely. I almost appreciated Manderlay in the way many people appreciate opera. We realize its beauty, but because of our individual taste for music, fail to truly connect with it.
2003 saw the release of Dogville, von Trier's first entry into his scathing "America: Land of Opportunity" trilogy. The film worked beyond its political commentary, letting us connect with its lead character Grace-who was then played by Nicole Kidman-and fall into its bizarrely minimalist reality. In short, Dogville stood on its own two feet as a story, even if it was a brutally inaccessible work of avant-garde filmmaking.
And now Manderlay, the sequel, finds its way into limited release. Now starring Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of Grace (Kidman was reportedly too busy for the sequel, but plans to return for Wasington, the third film) and Willem Dafoe as her father, originally played by James Caan. The film takes the next logical steps in its sharp criticism of American culture, now aiming to cripple two aspects of society: The cultural handling of African-Americans after the Emancipation Proclamation and how it relates to their treatment in society today, and a clear parallelism between Manderlay and the war in Iraq. But von Trier doesn't approach the topic with surgical precision; he cuts into the American cadaver with a rusty butter knife, infecting it with racy sexuality, torrid chunks of racism, and sarcastic stabs at patriotism. He means all well, of course--his interviews reveal his motives, mostly dealing with his severe hatred of the role America now plays as a diplomatic missionary--but many will extract from Manderlay misguided messages. Many black actors refused roles in the film because of its ambiguous message towards racism in America. It is said by many of the black characters that "America just ain't ready for us to be free." Through layers of metaphor and obtuse symbolism, von Trier is really saying that America has, from the start, fangled itself into permanent white supremacy; but von Trier clearly grind sparks on the way to this conclusion.
The film opens as Grace is taken by her gangster father and his band of cronies away from Dogville, traveling farther south into Texas. They pass by a gate, where a black man named Wilhelm (Danny Glover) approaches them, asking the gangsters to help his fellow slave Timothy (Isaach De Bankole) escape a fatal whipping from their master, Mam (Lauren Bacall). As a side-note, Grace represented integrity and right in the previous film, concluding the story with the justified destruction of the town Dogville, which of course symbolized America. With Manderlay, however, von Trier swaps symbols and makes Grace into the symbolic America. Anyway, Grace sentimentalizes the situation, and decides to help the slaves. She offends Mam in the process and drives her to her deathbed where, in her final words, she reveals the powerful book of rules to Manderlay's slavery to be hidden beneath her mattress. Grace, shocked by the criminal prolongation of slavery on the plantation seventy years after its abolishment, then chooses to stay in Manderlay and offer the slaves their freedom. Her father is disappointed with the decision and prophesies that the plantation's inhabitants will eventually rebel and come chasing her with fiery torches. Grace stays anyway and begins her work by putting the white owners under a contract that requires their labor alongside the now free blacks. But it seems the blacks don't want their freedom, and soon allow the cotton crop to go unattended, again baffling Grace. The parallels to Iraq are now clearly seen.
Manderlay is shot, similarly to Dogville, entirely on a soundstage. Instead of mimicking a 1930's American landscape, the cast acts upon what looks like a blueprint. Beside the gate are little shapes drawn on the floor, smartly labeled "Magnolias." Trees and walls are similarly indicated with black lines, characters only pretending to open doors, with foley sound filling in the audio. This stylistic device works as intended, drawing us away form visual distraction and further into the meaning of the story and its metaphoric depths.
Fans of Dogville will find Manderlay disappointingly inferior. The comments it makes are important and admittedly relevant to American society, but the film never truly connects. Characters aren't fully developed, Grace standing alone in what von Trier intends to be a group of nameless black folk, which doesn't allow for much character dimensionality among the black roles. And although Bryce Dallas Howard does an exceptional job, the symbolic meaning of her character retracts from the sentimental effect the old Grace from Dogville created. Making matters more unbearable, the film runs over the two-and-a-half-hour mark, dragging this extended metaphor along rocky roads until it's ragged and beaten nearly to death. But to deny that Manderlay is interesting would be dishonest. The film holds our interest throughout most of its length, but mostly on the terms of its commentary. As a story, Manderlay is convoluted and unbearably boring. Dogville succeeded in working both on a metaphoric and a surface level, with characters for us to latch on to and find interest in beyond their symbolic meaning. But with Manderlay, von Trier forgets that although a film can be dripping with avant-garde style and throw about forceful political comments, its first objective must, of course, be to tell a fine story.
-Reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
