Manderlay (2005)
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 99
Fresh: 50 | Rotten: 49
Manderlay may work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story.
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 19
Manderlay may work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 16,173
My Rating
Movie Info
The politics of slavery and the follies of nation-building highlight Danish director Lars von Trier's thought-provoking follow-up to the director's 2003 drama Dogville, featuring The Village's Bryce Dallas Howard in the role originally played by Nicole Kidman, and shot in the same stage-bound style as its predecessor. Shortly after leaving Dogville, Grace (Howard) and her father (Willem Dafoe) wander into a gated Alabama community still operating under the tenets of slavery. Appalled to stumble
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Cast
-
Bryce Dallas Howard
Grace -
Isaach De Bankolé
Timothy -
Danny Glover
Wilhelm -
Willem Dafoe
Grace's Father -
Michael Abiteboul
Thomas -
Lauren Bacall
Mam -
Jean-Marc Barr
Mr. Robinson -
Geoffrey Bateman
Bertie -
Virgile Bramly
Edvard -
Ruben Brinkman
Bingo -
Dana Smith Croll
Venus -
Jeremy Davies
Niels -
Llewella Gideon
Victoria -
Mona Hammond
Old Wilma -
Ginny Holder
Elisabeth -
John Hurt
Narrator -
Emmanuel Idowu
Jim -
Zeljko Ivanek
Dr. Hector -
Teddy Kempner
Joseph -
Udo Kier
Mr. Kirspe -
Rik Launspach
Stanley Mays -
Suzette Llewellyn
Flora -
Charles Maquignon
Bruno -
Joseph Mydell
Mark -
Javone Prince
Jack -
Clive Rowe
Sammy -
Chloë Sevigny
Philomena -
Nina Sosanya
Rose -
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All Critics (106) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (50) | DVD (13)
Watching this film is an edifying but frustrating experience; dull in parts, amusing and illuminating in others. You'd still struggle to call it entertainment.
Top CriticDig that freaky symbolism!
If von Trier can't be bothered to get out more, he should at least consider picking up a book or just using some real imagination.
Manderlay is both more coherent and more obvious than Dogville, which lacked the clean narrative drive of the new film.
Manderlay comes off as little more than a droning, embittered curiosity.
It's a movie with more surprising things to say than most about racism past and present.
The second installment in Lars von Trier's trilogy, USA: Land of Opprtunity, is a maor disappointment
"Manderlay" shows von Trier learning from that film's stylistic mistakes to make an ambitious and thought-provoking allegory about the ways in which "slavery" in America was never truly abolished, but rather converted to a different condition of capitalis
It doesn't offer much insight into America's race issues, which might seem at first to be its target, but it works very well as a metaphor for America's intervention in Iraq.
The audio commentary by writer-director Lars von Trier and his regular DP Anthony Dod Mantle is full of funny anecdotes and technical insights, giving a flavour of the pair's bantering on-set relationship.
If this trilogy finishes up strong, this middle portion may come to be seen as the weakest, though it's still forceful and intimate in the von Trier manner.
[It] raises interesting questions about what can happen in a democracy when its people are deeply corrupt. ... But likely to be more disheartened than enlightened.
this Great Dane backs up his satiric bark with a vicious bite.
A slightly more ponderous - if less dramatically satisfying - example of a Von Trier puppet show.
Manderlay is an intellectually invigorating analysis of race, class, power and democracy, all while remaining a thoroughly enjoyable (if harrowing) film.
Relying on a daring script as executed by A-list actors, offers a potentially transformational experience for any inclined to contemplate an introspective, gut-wrenching meditation on the intractability of the legacy of slavery.
Relying on a daring script as executed by A-list actors, offers a potentially transformational experience for any inclined to contemplate an introspective, gut-wrenching meditation on the intractability of the legacy of slavery.
Manderlay is shorter but just as dull, pretentious and condescending as Dogville.
Manderlay loses in power what it lacks in novelty, even though it's more relevant than anything the year is likely to bring.
I was intrigued by the intensity and audaciousness of Dogville, but Manderlay feels stagey, earnest, long and pretentious. Its grainy, shaky hand-held camera-work only adds to the monotony.
The audience's familiarity with the stylistic devices of Manderlay should allow the film's more reflective screenplay to shine through.
Audience Reviews for Manderlay
Super Reviewer
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- Grace's Father: When push comes to shove, you've made everything worse, like you did with Tweety.
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- Grace: We have done them a great wrong. It's our abuses have made them what they are.
Discussion Forum
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January 6, 2006:
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I haven't never quite gotten inside of these two experimental soundstage films, Manderlay and Dogville, of his which both critizes heavily America and it's culture and politics. Where Dogville at least worked as a curiosity and had better screenplay, Manderlay is simply just preachy and boring as hell.
This time Trier picks slavery as his topic and the end result feels heavy and forced. There is nothing new about human nature to be found here. Trier just basically toys with the same topics as so many other directors before him.
Cast is capable all around and especially Bryce Dallas Howard has more potential as an actress than Trier can actually get out of her. Names like Udo Kier, Willem Dafoae, Lauren Bacall Jean Marc Barr are all criminally underused in their roles.
The main problem here in my opinion is that Trier's soundstage concept was all used up in his earlier Dogville. Manderlay just seem to be recycling the same ideas of Dogville but only with lesser impact.
This is clearly meant to be provocative work but it ends up being nothing more than a overlong morality play about human nature. Manderlay is one of the weaker films from Trier.