Since before it was released I was waiting for this film, only the poster immediately caught my attention, and when I heard that it was Lars von Trier who directed the movie, my desire to see the film did nothing but increase. I finally saw it, and well, it has not exceeded my expectations, although it is not necessarily bad, is a little uncomfortable, and at times quite slow, but nevertheless it has some good moments too.
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Year: 2018
Category: Psychological Horror, Art.
Director: Lars von Trier.
Cast: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, Jeremy Davies.
Plot
The film tells the story of Jack, a serial killer with a certain artistic disposition, which describes the murders that he committed during a period of twelve years.
Opinion
Criticize this film is difficult for me, because its nature is quite hard, and do not get me wrong, the images shown are not the most violent or bloodthirsty, without a doubt there are films with visually stronger scenes, just a few days ago I was talking about Bone Tomahawk, a film that has a scene that I personally found quite violent, however, the type of violence found in this film is more subtle and therefore more psychologically shocking, in a way it is much less uncomfortable to watch the murder of an adult character quite clearly on the screen, that indirectly see the murder of a child's character.
Throughout the film, a dialogue is presented between two characters, Jack, the protagonist, and Verge, a character to whom we only hear dialogue with Jack, but of which we do not have a physical representation until the film is nearing its end. In the dialogue between Jack and Verge, the first tells the other some events of his life, dividing everything into five incidents, in such a way that the film is also divided into chapters, one for each incident, and an epilogue.
During 155 minutes the director induces the spectator to follow Jack in his misdeeds and crimes, all wrapped up in a kind of allegory that not only tells us about the film, but also tells us something about the director, in such a way that the story we are seeing on screen could easily be used as a manifestation of Lars von Trier and his relationship with the works he has done.
The film is accused of misogynist, but I'm not really going to judge that, what I can say is that the director does not feel any concern at the moment of making a film that without a doubt is politically incorrect, so we could say that von Trier seeks to annoy the audience and he get it.
The acting work is quite good, Matt Dillon must carry the weight of the film, and honestly I must say that he did an acceptable job even though I had never seen him in this acting facet. Uma Thurman also makes an appearance at the beginning of the film and she does it well. I was pleasantly surprised to find Bruno Ganz in the film, an actor known for his famous performance of Adolf Hitler in the film Der Untergang, also known as Downfall, and he also does well; I will try to see more films in which he acts.
The photography work is the best of the film, the way they use the colors is quite good, not to mention that the shots are magnificent, in fact, there is a scene that will probably be recorded forever in the memory of who sees the film, in which we are shown a simply magnificent representation of Eugène Delacroix's painting, known as The Barque of Dante.
In short, the film is not bad, but it is hard and at times difficult to see, and except for the fact that anyone can give it a different meaning, out of context it may seem nonsense. If I have to make a main criticism, I must direct it to the last 40 minutes of the film, where it seems that the rhythm goes down a lot, the film becomes slow, and therefore it gets stuck, however, also during those minutes, it is when the film gives us some really great images, like the one mentioned above.
Trailer
Score
7/10
I recommend it to those who are familiar with the filmography of Lars von Trier, without necessarily being the best or the worst of his work, the rest of the people can abstain unless they want to witness a good dose of psychological violence.