When it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Danish director Lars Von Trier’s Dogville was both hailed as a masterpiece and condemned as anti-American. Now Pittsburgh audiences have a chance to view the film that aroused such strong passions in its admirers and detractors. Von Trier’s place in film history has yet to be cemented, but this finely-crafted morality tale establishes him as one of today’s most brilliant dramatic minds.

Dogville takes place during the Depression in a tiny, miserable town by the same name. It is shot in a mostly-empty soundstage, with chalk lines drawn on the floors to indicate where the homes of the residents of Dogville are. This film is narrated by John Hurt, but is still eerily silent, its stillness broken only by the quiet voices of the town’s residents. This emptiness is galvanizing at first, but it allows the audience to concentrate on the film’s plot. 

The protagonist is Dogville resident Tom (Paul Bettany), an aspiring writer who gives the town weekly lectures on morality. Tom is idealistic, and dreams of undertaking a moral project that will unite his community. His wish is realized when a beautiful, mysterious young woman named Grace (Nicole Kidman) stumbles into Dogville on the run from a group of gangsters. Grace needs a place to hide, and Tom is all too happy to invite her to stay.

But the town’s residents, worn down by the hard times, view Grace with suspicion and refuse to accept her. Tom persuades the town to give Grace a chance, and she slowly wins their affection by doing menial tasks. But as Grace’s stay lengthens, the true character of the town reveals itself. Behind the facade of good, all-American wholesomeness is a place as corrupt and monstrous as the city Grace is running from.

Bettany, better known for his second-string characters in A Beautiful Mind and A Knight’s Tale, makes an excellent transition to leading-man status in Dogville. His Tom is a more recent reincarnation of Hawthorne’s Dimmesdale; he is a man of quiet intensity and lofty ideals, who struggles to reconcile his morals with his carnal desire for Grace. It is exactly this quietness that makes him every bit as mysterious as his protégé.

Kidman’s subdued, steely performance meshes perfectly with Bettany’s. Kidman is at her best when she plays vulnerable but determined women, and von Trier takes full advantage of her talents in the film. As the plot advances, Grace comes to understand the true relationship between power and morality that is at the heart of the little town. The finale is brutal and perverse, immoral and devastating, but also a masterpiece.

Dogville is currently playing at The Manor in Squirrel Hill.