Manderlay
The first installment of Lars von Trier's "USA - Land of Opportunities" trilogy, Dogville, was a crowd divider. Against the arty scenery and the one set-sans-walls, there was a certain artlessness in its dialogue and its blatant concepts of injustice, vulnerability and the exploitation of power. The heroine turned out to be an anti-heroine, a kind of idealistic cynic armed with virtues, a gun, and posse of gangsters (no, really). Despite the starkness of the production, Nicole Kidman pulled it off.
From the smoking ruins of Dogville, Grace and her father set across the States and chance upon a farm in Alabama. The estate, Manderlay, is ruled by the iron-fisted M’am (Lauren Bacall, Dogville). In the heady 1930s, and seventy years after the abolition of slavery, Grace is shocked that M’am still runs a slave-based operation. Before she dies, M’am begs Grace to burn the log of “M’am’s Law” by which the farm operates – Grace refuses to do so, intending to uncover M’am’s ills when “the people is ready”, as counselled by the steady Willhelm (Danny Glover, The Royal Tenenbaums). Despite hearing of other failed post-slavery integration attempts, (is there a name missing here?) proposes instead she turns the farm into a corporation, with black and white people as relatively equal shareholders. It is a historical suggestion of the struggle that America undertook to bring conceptual laws into practical day-to-day acceptance.
Left with four gangsters and a lawyer, Grace, against her father’s wishes, bids him goodbye to assist Manderlay and its people in their transformations. Much like in Dogville, she finds herself in another series of interactions that sees her compromising herself and others to ensure they attain her perception of greatness.
So much has changed, yet too much has stayed the same. Bryce Dallas Howard (Lady in the Water) takes on Nicole Kidman's role of the ever-hopeful Grace, and William Dafoe (Spiderman) steps in as her gangster father. Von Trier, however, has chosen to retain his theatre-like set, which this time detracts from, rather than complements, the storytelling. Frustratingly, none of the characters appear to bring in any lessons learnt from Dogville, apparently doomed to make the same mistakes again – perhaps all the more human. Von Trier once again attempts to weave some shocking sexual deeds into the storyline – in Dogville, he heeded Kidman's advice of restraint and the result was a powerful tool that shocked, rather than titillated. Perhaps in lacking the previous breadth of actors, or throwing such caution to the wind this time, the sexual concepts in this round of commentary do more to reveal von Trier’s proclivities, than assist in plot development.
It’s admirable von Trier is attempting to stand back and assess what the US is like from the inside, despite all the virtues it exposes on the outside. From the outside, its position and appearance as a superpower is being contrasted against the backdrop of this tiny estate, symbolic of the struggle of the “black man”. Grace’s struggle against being the ‘M’am’ of the farm and moving from a position of moral rectitude and personal victimisation to succumbing to doling out the vilification that she so abhorred, draws numerous parallels to the current political climate.
In the modern day context of racial and religious sparrings, coups and changes in political landscapes, there is such gravity in the matter that Lars Von Trier wants to drag his dioramic hand across all concepts: and drag he does - this story of apparent powerlessness and the choices “people(s)” make takes a whopping 2 hours 19 minutes.
The result is such a hopscotch of concepts and gripes about modern day America that it is difficult to see the collection as a story - these sequences stand side by side and rotate along the same plane but do not form a stepping stone for the next part in Grace’s journey. It is, sadly, your typical second part of a trilogy and a wasted opportunity to achieve a significant milestone. Perhaps like most trilogies, wait to see if the third one is worth watching and then see Manderlay if you think you’ve missed anything.