Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Manderlay

Von Trier's trilogy continues, sans Nicole Kidman.

By PETER KEOUGH | February 16, 2006

2.5 Stars

Bryce Dallas Howard and Isaach De Bankolé

Lars von Trier’s Manderlay has something to offend everyone: blacks, whites, conservatives, liberals, and those who, like myself, found Dogville a bold if flawed experiment. This second film in a projected trilogy reduces its predecessor to formula. In a soundstage version of 1933 America, Grace, played here by an appealing Bryce Dallas Howard instead of Nicole Kidman, has journeyed with her gangster father (Willem Dafoe) from the scene of her last adventure to the Alabama estate of the title, where slavery is still being practiced. Hapless do-gooder that she is, Grace tries to set things right, with predictably bad results. Anti-Iraq war allegory? Reactionary version of Reconstruction? Despite the provocations, Manderlay impresses most with its ingenuity in tormenting its characters regardless of race, gender, or politics. Trier, a Swiftian misanthrope, is attacking not America but the damned human race.

Related: All-American?, Cannes goods, Road rules, More

Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Movie Stars, More

| More

More Information

Watch the trailer for Manderlay (QuickTime)

More on this story:

All American?: Lars von Trier at Cannes 2005. By Gerald Peary.

ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH

REVIEW: FOLLOW ME: THE YONI NETANYAHU STORY | May 29, 2012
Whatever your opinion of the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, you can't deny that his brother Yoni was a hero, a courageous man whose conflicts and triumphs mirror those of his homeland.

REVIEW: MOONRISE KINGDOM | June 01, 2012
Wes Anderson should always make movies featuring characters who are pubescent or younger — like Rushmore , which until this film was his best.

REVIEW: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? | May 22, 2012
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's whimsical film about internecine slaughter has a tone problem from the very start: a group of widows engage in a goofy line dance while the voiceover narrator bewails the death toll of religious warfare.

REVIEW: MEN IN BLACK 3 | May 24, 2012
Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), a fifth dimensional alien, can see the infinite possibilities each moment possesses and the infinite contingencies that caused it to happen.