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DEAR WENDY
Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg.
Produced by: Sisse Graum Jørgensen.
Written by: Lars von Trier.
Director of Photography: Anthony Dod Mantle.
Edited by: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen.
Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch.
Released by: Wellspring.
Language: English.
Country of Origin: Denmark/France/Germany/UK. 100 min. Not Rated.
With: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson & Chris Owen.

Lars von Trier’s latest screenwriting credit may not be the third part of his ongoing “U. S. of A.” trilogy, but that’s certainly not for any thematic differences. Set in a town where the only attainable work is in the mines, Estherslope has nothing to offer Dick (Jamie Bell), a boy so sensitive and so American his cowlick is nearly its own character. After barely leaving his house for years, he discovers that a toy gun he once bought is not so much a toy. Instead, it gives him strength, and soon he invites Estherslope’s milieu of youthful castoffs to join him in forming the Dandies, a pacifist group of gun aficionados who swear to never use their guns, only to carry them, know them, and love them. They refer to killing with their guns as “loving,” but the group’s only law prohibits such an act from occurring. As you may have guessed, this all accumulates to yet another of Lars von Trier’s happy endings. Why he hasn’t directed a Nora Ephron script is a mystery.

All of this makes for a challenging and exhaustive allegory that uses American gun worship as its critical vehicle. This is not a heavy drama that panders to simple empathic realism; this is thoughtful, meticulous absurdity. Increasingly, the demarcation between character and caricature has become almost indistinct in von Trier’s scripts. But with a realistic, picturesque director like Thomas Vinterberg, the competing styles benefit the film greatly and save Dear Wendy from being the stark (though groundbreaking) three hours that was Dogville. It’s surprising how lighthearted von Trier can be with someone to rein him in, and Vinterberg manages to establish a good modicum of reality in the performances of his cast, even when characters believe guns can make their breasts grow.

By the end, Vinterberg seems to admit how ridiculous the situations really are with the most over-the-top finish since Howl’s Moving Castle. But before that happens, there’s a wonderful period of unstable gravity and humor (when the film’s tediously ironic narrator isn’t looking) that we’ve come to associate more with Gus Van Sant and Richard Linklater than with the typically morose von Trier. Bill Pullman’s hilarious casting as the archetypal American sheriff alone makes this worth watching, though there are moments when the allegory is too pungent to bear. However, if you like your von Trier to be a depressing and densely symbolic bloodbath, this is one of his best. Zachary Jones
September 23, 2005