Bjork and Cara Symour in "Dancer in the Dark."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Bjork Director: Lars von Trier Rated: R, with violence and profanity Length: 137 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(October 06, 2000) -- I remember my excitement at the originality and bravura of Lars von Trier's heart-breaking 1996 film, Breaking the Waves.

From Emily Watson's wrenching Oscar-nominated performance to the imaginative way von Trier wrestled with deep spiritual issues, I'd never seen anything like it.

Well, now I have, and that's the problem.

Von Trier's new film, Dancer in the Dark, is another brave display of unorthodox filmmaking, including segments that can be labeled only as musical melodrama. But it's also a pretentious, sometimes gosh-awful pretender to the throne.

Once again, the Dane examines the tragic life of an emotionally crippled woman whose attempts to do good end up bad. But Dancer falls far short of Breaking the Waves in nearly every way -- in uneven performances, an implausible narrative, its shallow emotional resonance.

Despite moments of brilliance -- including a fine performance from its unlikely star, the Icelandic singer Bjork -- the film, at best, is Breaking the Ripples.

Bjork plays Selma, a bespectacled factory worker in a town in Washington state. Though her bad eyesight is a liability around metal presses, she struggles to earn money before she goes blind.

Her 10-year-old suffers from the same unnamed disease and also will go blind unless he has an expensive operation. Selma is understandably obsessed with earning the cash.

She and the boy live with Bill, a town policeman (David Morse) and his wife (Cara Seymour), who have their own money problems. Bill lusts after the pile of money Selma keeps salting away.

Selma also has an admirer (Peter Stormare) who sits like a puppy outside the factory entrance, hoping Selma will give him the time of day.

Nearly every character in the film is a whiny loser.

The exception is Selma's best friend, Kathy, a fellow factory worker, improbably played by Catherine Deneuve. Though Kathy is more resourceful than anyone else in the film, she has little to do with the outcome.

Dancer in the Dark is shot in murky colors, except for the times Selma breaks into song. The colors intensify and the dingy film assumes the hyper-color of an MGM musical.

Though all Bjork originals, the songs reflect Selma's love of musicals.

Her songs comment on her character's dire straits and dashed dreams. But Bjork's Euro-rock singing style sounds like ABBA on quaaludes -- and relates in no way to the movie musical tradition.

More to the point, I couldn't understand most of her lyrics.

Bjork has more success as an actress, enabling us to see Selma's conviction, concern and inherent goodness.

But, strangely, von Trier directed the normally superb Morse to a clumsy, all-at-sea portrayal, and caused Deneuve to disappear into the woodwork.

Some people consider Dancer in the Dark a masterpiece. After all, it won the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Some have called it a film to be loved or hated, but not me. Though I find it disappointing and severely flawed, I still give this stumbling Dancer a few points for daring and for its occasional flashes of painful brilliance from Bjork.