MOVIE REVIEWS Dancer in the Dark (2000)

• Directed by Lars von Trier
• complete credits: see IMDb entry

• Review

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Great music, dull movie

Rating: 5 of 10        

Some movies desperately try to be things they aren't. Some movies try to be different and thus innovative, but in the end, they cease to be innovative but stay different - annoyingly, not pleasingly. Yet it is always a shame to see the greatest possible potential lost, to see great moments being destroyed by an overall bad aftertaste.

Björk delivers a stunning performance, Peter Stormare as well, and David Morse is even better than usual, frightfully realistic. Almost the entire cast seems utterly devoted to this picture, perhaps with the exception of Catherine Deneuve, who's just pale and uninteresting in this role.

The music is moving and typically Björk, the sad thing's just that the soundtrack album doesn't contain all of the songs, and even the ones featured seem to have been altered somehow. Anyway, the dancing scenes are shot beautifully and inspired, especially "I've Seen It All", "Forgive Me" and "107 Steps".

That's it, there's nothing more to it. As a selection of video clips, this would be excellent, yet it is supposed to be a movie. In that, it fails miserably. The story is contrived and utterly boring, so predictable that it hurts, with only some rare moments of inspiration as it seems. The end is made as being shocking; but it is too obviously made that way - and some scenes which were supposed to be shocking or sad just seemed strangely funny and ridiculous. If you want to see a truly great movie with a similar premise, I recommend 'The Green Mile', which is everything this movie isn't.

Yet the worst of all that's wrong with this film is the look. Why use handheld video? Why make erratic movements with the camera? There's no reason for it. It doesn't make the film more realistic, on the contrary. A steady movie camera provides much more depth and realism than what has been used here. Yet it does look a bit more familiar - if you prefer the look of a badly made home video. But there is no reason for it, not like it was necessary in 'The Blair Witch Project', where the video camera was part of the story. Here it isn't, it is just annoying and stupid.

A lot of the elements used in this film are right and perfect. The cast, the music, the dancing choreography, the idea of doing an overture. But every bit of potential is lost and destroyed by story, the missing atmosphere and an overblown and seemingly artificial need to deliver a moral message. This is bad, really bad. Maybe there should be a director's cut - just the songs and the dancing, everything else ommitted. That would be a perfect movie. But otherwise, this is just a big, ugly mess. What a shame that such a cast and such a music were wasted on this. A terrible B-movie with flawed and seemingly unsubstantiated artistic aspirations. But do see it - just for Björk's performance and for the music. Repress the rest.

October 19th, 2000