Written and directed by Lars von Trier, starring: Nicole Kidman (Grace), Paul Bettany (Thomas Edison), Lauren Bacall (Ma Ginger), James Caan (Big Man), John Hurt (Narrator), 177 minutes, 2003.

The staging of this film takes some getting used to because, while Dogville is a mythical town in the Colorado Rockies during the Depression, the set was mounted on two large sound stages in Denmark and Sweden. Streets and houses are chalk lines on the floor and dwellings are merely suggested by doors and windows. It is minimalist to a fault.

Edison is a young and earnest philosopher trying to get his town, the site of an abandoned silver mine, to adopt a higher moral tone. People turn out to his lectures with a "what else is there to do" sense of ennui.

Suddenly, Grace shows up; a woman of mystery pursued by gangsters. With Tom's pushing, the people take a vote as to whether they will allow her to stay or whether they will turn her in. They allow her to stay, with the expectation that she will do some work to repay them. Unfortunately the people are so self contained that they don’t have any needs. Slowly, however, Grace becomes part of their lives and everyone assumes a very pleased air with the capacity of the community to welcome this stranger. Soon, forces within and without begin to tear at the fabric of community relationships. From within: Tom and Grace fall in love; a child tells a lie in order to gain attention; people become jealous and envious; lust leads to a rape; anxiety about sheltering a criminal erodes good will. From without, the presence of the police, the offer of a reward, the threat of gangsters all creates the conditions for the community to turn against Grace and hold her captive. When she tries to escape she is betrayed and the community puts a chain around her neck and ties her to a large flywheel, which she drags around as she continues to try fulfilling her various chores.

Tom decides to betray her in hopes of a large reward and phones the Big Man to come and pick her up. When he does, there is a huge surprise. It turns out that she is The Big Man's daughter (not his moll) from whom she has run away because she abhors the role into which she is expected to succeed in the gangster organization. They argue and bargain. She proposes that the townsfolk be forgiven because they are poor, driven by need and fear and she herself might well have done the same thing in their position. Big Man argues that she is arrogantly assuming some form of moral superiority. In the end, the town is wiped out in retribution for its failing to treat Grace with dignity and justice.

Trier has a very dark and despairing view of human nature (even though he is a recent convert to Roman Catholicism). There seems to be no force for hope and redemption. While Grace is a Christ figure who initially argues for forgiveness and redemption she becomes a perfect symbol of an Anselmian Christ who cannot simply forgive, "because of the great weight of sin" (the flywheel). At one level this might appear to be an allegorical morality play; the towns people "know not what they do"; Tom, the lover, is Judas the betrayer; Grace is the "suffering servant"; the Big Man is an avenging God. Unless of course, the distant and ironic Narrator is God, the Big Man is Satan the Tester and Tom is Peter ("I do not know the man!"). Whatever… There are many levels to the story and lots of opportunities for conversation about the ways in which Grace is like or unlike The Christ; what is judgment; can evil be countered.

Trier is neither interested in the personal morality of the townsfolk nor in a modern portrayal of the Substitutionary Theory of the Atonement. He paints, with a broad brush, the social nature of evil and the paltry efforts of individual crusaders (read "liberals") to withstand complicity in its effect. Unfortunately, Trier takes a sledgehammer and drives home his anti-American indictment in a series of still photos and David Bowie singing "Young Americans" at the end. These are pictures of desperately poor people discarded by society during The Depression. Trier draws an exaggerated and ugly picture through the film and in the stills at the end, to "reach a public that is hard of hearing." His spokesperson is Tom who tells his neighbours, "I think there is a lot this country has forgotten; I just try to refresh folks’ memories by way of illustration."