The second instalment in Lars Von Trier’s “USA” trilogy once again features the bad-boy Dane blowtorching, as he sees it, the hypocritical do-gooder mindset of a country he’s never stepped foot in. It’s the same stark, one-stage set-up as Dogville – locations marked by lines, a few more props this time – with Bryce Dallas Howard replacing Nicole Kidman as gangster’s daughter Grace. Whereas she was ritually abused by Dogville’s doomed denizens, here the tables are turned as she muscles her way into running an Alabama plantation that still has slaves 70 years after emancipation... slaves who aren’t that grateful when she liberates them.
Von Trier scratches away at America’s oozing scabs (racism, greed, misuse of power) with his typically fierce polemicism, although his scattershot rage is diluted by his inherent mischievousness. Manderlay fails to match Dogville’s potency, the director admitting in a lacklustre commentary that the film was sapped of drama when he didn’t have Grace to victimise.
DVD Extras:
Audio Commentary By Director Lars Von Trier And Director Of Photography Anthony Dodd Mantle, The Road To Manderlay - Making Of Featurette, Theatrical Trailer.
