Watch Manderlay For Free

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blistering performances.

Viewed at Valladolid, 2006: The big cash prize of 50,000 Euros, the 50th Anniversary Prize commemorating the fifty years of the Seminci festival, was in fact shared ("ex-aequo" is the elegant Latin term) by the two festival favorites, Austrian Michael Haneke, for his puzzling French thriller, "Caché" (Hidden), and the quirky Dane, Lars von Trier, for his pseudo-American successor to "Dogville", "Manderlay". From a purely personal point of view I must say that I regard Von Trier films as an acquired taste (like poison) which I have never acquired -- in fact I have always found them rather revolting and have never been able to sit through one of his schizzy nightmares from beginning to end -- although I did sort of make it through "Dogville" -- by sheer will power, with many cigarette breaks -- but mainly because of a fascination with Nicole Kidman's uncannily shapely nose. In short I thought "Dogville" was nothing but pretentious b*****t, and I couldn't believe that an actress like Lauren Bacall lent her prestige to it, but -- I have to admit -- against my better judgement -- that I actually (sort of) liked "Manderlay". For one thing, Bacall, who was wooden in "Dogville", dies off in the first ten minutes, "Grace", who was Kidman in the first installment of this projected trilogy, has now metamorphosed into a less glamorous but far more credible actress, Bryce Dallas Howard, and a ponderous James Caan as Grace's gangster father, has been replaced by a more digestible (if slightly ridiculous) Willem Defoe, but what really makes "Manderlay" work as a drama (rather than a pretentious lecture on the sad state of the world and the decay of the American Dream ) is the excellent cast of black actors, especially Danny Glover, but all uniformly good -- who somehow infuse this Von Trier head game with some real soul. Another thing which helps, is that Von Trier has mercifully gotten a little away from the overweaning Monopoly Board sets and invisible clicking doors which made "Dogville" unbearable after the first half hour. There is still, in "Manderlay", a certain amount of the artificial Monopoly Board geometry in place, but not so much that it totally distracts as it did in the earlier film. Who knows, maybe Part III will be set on a Ouija Board -- in any case, "Manderlay" has a certain feeling going for it that makes it far more watchable than any of Von Trier's previous sessions of celluloid sado-masochism.The title, incidentally, has nothing to do with Kipling•s Mandalay, but is a co-opting of the name of the spooky mansion in Hitchcock's "Rebeccah". Here it is the name of a strange Alabama plantation where, in 1933, slavery is still going on and the slaves seem to like it that way -- for as head slave Danny Glover (great role) puts it, "We ain't reddy fo' no freedom yet -- we's better off dis way".

The way that director Lars Von Trier can point his finger so solemnly and self-importantly at a country he's never lived in is insufferable. The look of the film is tough on the eyes to watch. Can't a serious film be at least mildly pleasing aesthetically? I'd hope so. Cinema is a visual art form after all. And Von Trier's message? Moronic obvious nonsense about slavery still existing 70 years later, the fact that capitalism itself becomes slavery, and comparing Grace's (Bryce Dallas Howard) fight to end the slavery at Manderlay with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As in "Dogville", Von Trier has no concept of what he speaks. Thankfully I didn't pay to see the movie so I'm glad he didn't reap any rewards from me or my crew.

Danish director Lars Von Trier continues his Deep South adventure with this fable about race, power, isolation and freedom.Like 2003's Dogville, there is something refreshingly literal about Von Trier's screenplay. That's not to say it lacks subtext - it is abundant - but at times its political convictions are presented like a series of political soundbites. While the blank theatre-style set is perhaps not used as effectively as it was in Dogville, the technique again adds weight to the bluntness of the key polemics.Von Trier's magic is in tackling weighty subject matter in a very watchable way. Dancer In The Dark, for example, probably his most powerful deconstruction of the American Dream, showed us a new twist on the classical Hollywood musical; and without patronising its heritage it made a pertinent political point. Like that masterpiece, Manderlay demands the audience leave their expectations at the door whilst offering a reasonably straightforward narrative containing some satisfying plot twists and a surprising amount of dark humour. It may be less genre-specific than Dancer In The Dark, but like all this ex-Dogme director's latter films, it is accessible, neat and tight, and fleet of foot.Von Trier presents yet another spiky woman-in-peril. Bryce Dallas Howard takes over from Nicole Kidman as the idealistic Grace. She turns out to be the ideal choice, too - there's a broadness to the shoulders and a steeliness to the eyes of this stronger, wiser heroine. Those who have Von Trier marked down as a misogynist will be pleased (or possibly disappointed) to hear that this troubled heroine is his most powerful and least set-upon to date. John Hurt, Chloe Sevigny, Jeremy Davies, Udo Kier, Lauren Bacall and Von Trier regular Jean-Marc Barr all return for another round of selfless bit parts.Those concerned with the idea of watching a movie without a set shouldn't worry - it's practically unnoticeable after a time, thanks largely to the quality and intensity of the drama. This is classy, intelligent film-making from a talented and consistent auteur.

It's Dogville again but with tweaks - cast, plot... Bryce Dallas Howard is Grace this time around, breaking with her father in a fit of blind righteousness: in the end she's the victim of more curdled Southern reality. This is stupid animal of a film, slow and obvious but feral and honest. I didn't get on with it at all. I think that the script is wooden and delivered with too much reverence (with the exception/relief of John Hurt's narration). It's also badly lit and claustraphobically shot with no good aesthetic reason - another, detrimental change from Dogville.Bryce Dallas Howard is an interesting casting change from Kidman. She manages the transition from wisegirl to denuded (in both senses) naif rather well, although von Trier relies more on her pale youth than her own communicating ability to achieve this. Danny Glover is a little at sea, to be honest; the only character I felt really had an impact was the scowling but inscrutable Timonthy of Isaach De Bankolé. But by the time he'd begun to register, I stopped caring. 2/10