I never had so many mixed feelings with "Dancer in the Dark", so the only way to accurately rate this movie was to rate different categories. Van Trier's "Dancer in the Dark" may be the most misunderstood movie of the year. The few people I talked to either hated it or passionately loved it. As for me, I'm split. On one hand, I admired Bjork's strong performance and her beautiful, unique music, but on the other hand, Van Trier's wanted me to feel sympathy for a character that murders, lies, etc. just so her son can have an operation. "Dancer in the Dark" had the potential for cinematic greatness, but failed miserably with its story and characters.
In "Dancer in the Dark", Bjork plays a young Czech woman who moves to America in 1964 where she works in a factory. Though the work and her life are hard, she finds an escape in her love of Hollywood musicals, as her imaginations throws her off into a fantasy filled with beautiful music. There is another dark cloud, however, as she and her 12-year-old son both suffer from a condition that will eventually make them go blind. In result, she works to make the money to get the operation that her son needs.
Furthermore, Selma's neighbors are in desperate need for money. In finding no way out, they steal Selma's money that she will be using for her son's operation. From this point on, the story gets bleaker and bleaker.
Bjork's performance and her music was the only redeeming qualities in this movie. I came into the theater as being a huge Bjork fan and I also knew all the words from the album "Selmasongs" (music from Dancer in the Dark). For the past several months where all my friends have been into teen pop stars such as Britney Spears, I've been into Bjork and her amazing music. Bjork was extremely powerful in her role as Selma. The final scene was so convincing and effective that I will never forget her performance as Selma. Everyone who watches this movie will be touched by her.
The characters in this movie were awful. I don't care how horrible their lives are, that it makes them do desperate and crazy things. For example, as Selma was trying to get her money back from her neighbor, she commits murder and inflicts 30+ wound to him. Doesn't she have some knowledge about the law that murder is illegal? Also, the trial was horrible. Selma could of easily proved her innocent, but I guess it wouldn't make the story sad. All the characters are stupid, naive, and crazy. If only one person had some common sense, the movie wouldn't end the way it did.
Also, I didn't like the shaky, awkwardly edited style of this movie. I understand that it gives a more personal feel to the story, but during many scenes, this style took away from the overall mood. The Dogme95 cinematography technique is still very overrated. It makes the movie into a badly filmed family home video.
This movie had many cons and few pros. Even though I didn't adore this movie, the final scene was still very powerful: emotionally and politically. Even with my C rating, I still recommend this movie to everyone. Remember, you might not like it, but give this movie a chance.
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