With "Manderlay," Lars von Trier has finally lost me. He has made an avid fan feel tired and abused.
Manderlay (2006)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:95
Fresh:48
Rotten:47
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Manderlay may work better as a political statement than as a film, making its points at the expense of telling a compelling story.
Runtime: 2 hrs 19 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Jan 27, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: This is the strange, disturbing story of the Manderlay plantation. Manderlay lay on a lonely plain somewhere in the deep south of the USA. It was in the year of 1933 that Grace and her father... This is the strange, disturbing story of the Manderlay plantation. Manderlay lay on a lonely plain somewhere in the deep south of the USA. It was in the year of 1933 that Grace and her father had left the township of Dogville behind them. Grace's father and his army of villains had spent the entire winter seeking out new hunting grounds in vain, and now they were heading south in one last attempt to find a favourable location in which to take up residence. By chance their cars stop in the state of Alabama in front of a large iron gate bearing a thick chain and a padlock. Beside the gate, a dead oak tree towers over a heavy boulder with Manderlay hewn in monumental letters into the granite. Just as Grace, her father and his men are about to leave after a short break and a quick lunch, a young black woman runs up to the car. She knocks on Grace's window. She hammers at the glass in despair. Ignoring her father’s advice to leave others to their own affairs, Grace follows the girl through the gates of Manderlay and there, she finds a group of people living as if slavery had not been abolished seventy years earlier, with white masters and black slaves... Grace believes that she has a duty to make it up to the slaves for injustices they have suffered at the hands of her kind: 'we brought them here, we abused them and made them what they are', as she argues to her father; and she decides that having liberated Manderlay, she will remain at the plantation until she has seen them through their first harvest. Her father grudgingly leaves her with four henchmen and a lawyer, warning Grace that he won't be there to pick up the pieces when her plans for the resurrection of Manderlay fall apart... --© IFC Films [More]
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach de Bankolé, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe
Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach de Bankolé, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, Michael Abiteboul, Lauren Bacall, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, John Hurt, Chloe Sevigny
Director: Lars von Trier
Director: Lars von Trier
Screenwriter: Lars von Trier
Producer: Vibeke Windelov
Studio: IFC Films
Get This Movie
Reviews for Manderlay
The most self-important, heavy-handed film since...well, since DOGVILLE.
Shocking usage of racial epithets and images of 20th-century slavery do their part to mess with your head. Von Trier is an intelligent and capable filmmaker, and he presents some fascinating thoughts and questions in his bitter, accusatory satire. Problem
Von Trier may not be completely right, but he certainly isn't all wrong.
Manderlay loses in power what it lacks in novelty, even though it's more relevant than anything the year is likely to bring.
There's a troubling sense that von Trier is simply going through the motions.
The trouble is the angrier it gets, the more infuriatingly banal it becomes.
Von Trier upends the accepted dialogue on race, pushing past stereotypes and correctness.
The crucial difference between Manderlay and the almost unbearable Dogville is not that his politics have changed, but that his sense of mercy for the audience has been awakened.
It's a movie with more surprising things to say than most about racism past and present.
Um belo filme, sem dúvida alguma, mas que empalidece frente ao seu antecessor ao tentar igualar-se como discurso sociológico.
If you liked "Dogville," you won't want to miss this Danish Cake of minimalism.
"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 lacks the thrillingly nuts, outlandish quality of the original, but is also quite a bit more pointed and focused.
Von Trier's obvious bigotry towards the U.S. and the significantly weaker cast makes his revolutionary ideas a harder sell the second time around.
Picks at the painful sores of America's racial legacy while withholding the brotherhood-of-man epiphanies that made the Oscar-validated 'Crash' a healing experience for many moviegoers...
[Von Trier] has imbued the material with enough dramatic power and relevance that despite its many flaws, it is still essential viewing.
Some will see Manderlay as thought-provoking and representative of the way the rest of the world sees us. If that's the case, then we're really in trouble.
Latest News for Manderlay
January 26, 2006:
Critical Consensus: Annapolis and Momma Disappoint, While Nanny Casts an Innocuous Spell
Annapolis, the renowned naval military school, is an institution steeped in history; unfortunately, the movie can lay claim to that as well. Starring James Franco as a new... More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

MSN Movies offers a little background on the success of Disney Animation.

TIME takes a look back at the history of vampires on film.

Techland examines the visual splendor of Peter Jackson's upcoming film.

AOL put together a list of 10 recent news items that would be perfect as TV Movies.

Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill explores how remakes and reboots have warped our thinking.
Promos

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!



Top Critic


