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Manderlay

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 27 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Lars von Trier
Directed by: Lars von Trier
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 27, 2006
DVD: August 8, 2006
Running Time: 139 minutes, Color
Origin: Denmark / Sweden / Netherlands / France / Germany / USA
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach De Bankolé, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, Jeremy Davies, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, and Jean-Marc Barr
The second installment in Lar Von Trier's United States trilogy, Manderlay centers on a plantation in 1933 Alabama.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Antichrist Breaking the Waves Dancer in the Dark Dogville Epidemic Medea The Five Obstructions The Idiots
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Empire David Parkinson
Unstintingly raw and cynical, this disconcerting and deeply affecting State Of The Union treatise regularly comes dangerously close to caricature.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
One of the best things about real Americans is that we can stand criticism. Informed or idiotic, scholarly or superficial, it's all welcome.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The acting has the bravura stage eloquence of Broadway Shakespeare and the movie is narrated, beautifully, by John Hurt.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
Anybody can make a movie that's anti-slavery. But to make a movie that's explicitly anti-democracy-that's something.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
I wouldn't go so far as to claim Manderlay is fun to watch. Von Trier, who can made compulsively watchable films ("Breaking the Waves"), has found a style that will alienate most audiences. Maybe it's necessary.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
To state the obvious, Manderlay is often patently offensive in its racial politics, and it surely isn't for everyone. It is, however, very funny, very dark and very skillfully played.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
It's true, of course, that Trier still hasn't set foot on U.S. soil, but it may be that he sees us, in all our virtue and victimhood, that much more clearly for it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Lars von Trier is back, so to speak--he's never visited the States, which makes his snide anti-American allegories even more infuriating to some….But the story holds up well enough to deliver a pointed critique of establishing self-rule at gunpoint.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
To warm to Manderlay, the chilly second installment of Lars von Trier's not-yet-finished three-part Brechtian allegory examining United States history, you must be willing to tolerate the derision and moral arrogance of a snide European intellectual thumbing his nose at American barbarism.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
It's an extremely cynical perspective, enforced by some disappointingly turgid melodrama, but keep in mind, this movie was made before an almost uniformly poor and black population was left to rot in New Orleans floodwaters. Even at his worst, von Trier can still strike a nerve.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's so ruthlessly witty and meticulously plotted -- unexpectedly so, given its messy dramatic sprawl -- that it delivers a satisfying kick.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
A misfire, but a misfire from von Trier is still more interesting than a blandly successful Hollywood product.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Spike Lee has been treading similar terrain with both greater cogency and fewer similarities to Bertolt Brecht. Manderlay, though, is mad and perplexed in its own inscrutable, schematic way. The trouble is the angrier it gets, the more infuriatingly banal it becomes.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Howard struggles with the role Kidman nailed. And the graphic nude scene in which "proudy slave" Timothy (Isaach De Bankole) puts a towel over Grace's head before ravishing her pale body is as rugged on the audience as it is on the actors.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Ferraro
If you hated "Dogville" because of the overage of narration or the length of time it took to finally get to a point, you'll be pleased to know that von Trier has lessened both those elements. With that said, it still has some of the same flaws.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
The film's conceits grow thin and von Trier's mocking, hectoring tone tiresome.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Nothing von Trier presents here, whether real or imagined, is fresh or new.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
The subject being race relations, Manderlay is bound to stir considerable debate in intellectual circles, but given the director's abstract style and use of characters to enact an agenda, it's a discussion that will exclude the general public, who will ignore it as they did "Dogville."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Josh Kun
Trier gets lost in his own rhetoric, forgetting to entertain his flock while raking them over the coals.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
In truth, von Trier is not so much a filmmaker as a misanthropic mesmerist, who uses movies to bend the viewer to his humorless will.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Plagued by moralizing so strident and a style so artificial that the story never has a chance to speak to an audience.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
No matter where he (Von Trier) begins, his dramatic compass drifts toward the same pole: the sexual humiliation of his heroine (How could Daddy let you do this, Bryce?). But it's hard to get too worked up over racial injustice when a director has the temperament of a Klansman.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Perhaps the saddest thing about Manderlay is how poorly von Trier treats his actors, who are so bludgeoned by the concept and the format they can scarcely breathe.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Another ridiculous anti-American screed by the minimalist Danish director Lars von Trier, who has never set foot in this country.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The film is obvious, weak and scattered and seems more like a practical joke than a work of genuine passion. It is without exaggeration one of the most blindingly boring films I've seen in years.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Philip Kennicott
Even the basic look of the film -- it was filmed on a stage with every shot set against a bleak, dark backdrop -- underscores the filmmaker's position as master manipulator, in a laboratory, looking down at his mice running through his maze.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Hate is too strong an emotion to spend on such a clumsy, bloodless broadside against human foibles in general and American follies in particular.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Yvette P. gave it an8:
Probably the most thought-provoking film of the year-- Lars Von Trier seems to have his finger on the pulse of American society and the ugly reality of racism that stuburnly coexists with high faluntin' liberal ideas. I am not sure I agree with what seems to be the film's central premise--that left to their own devices, slaves will return to enslavement--after all, "you" (American Whites) created "us" (African Americans) This is a dim view of the enslaved that denies them humanity. However, I do think it lays bare one important idea--that white supremacy is no more noble when practiced by a well-meaning liberal than when practiced by a race-baiting conservative. Both are equally dangerous, with potentially deadly consequences.
Nathan T gave it a2:
"Dogville" was bad, in some regards "Manderlay" might be worse. The way that director Lars Von Trier can point his finger so solemnly and self-importantly at a country he's never been is insufferable. The look of the film, totally barren is tough on the eyes to watch. Can't a serious film be at least mildly pleasing aesthetically? I'd hope so. Me, I enjoy movies, that whether they are celebrations or mournings are high on the joys of cinema. Cinema is a visual art form after all. And Von Trier's message? Moronic obvious nonsense about slavery still existing 70 years later, the fact that capitalism itself becomes slavery, and comparing Grace's (Bryce Dallas Howard) fight to end the slavery at Manderlay with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As in "Dogville", Von Trier has no concept of what he speaks. I think my negative feelings toward the movie were stirred up in the first moments when he presents a map of the United States and I said to myself, "He's never been to any of those 48 states I'm looking at." The nicest thing I can say about Von Trier's trilogy (it will culminate with the release of "Washington" next year), is that it is like anything else I've seen before it. The truest thing: I hope I never see anything even remotely like it again.
Jacob D. gave it a7:
An amazing and important film. However, I don't think it's quite as brilliant as Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves or Dogville.
R. G. gave it a9:
I ve seen it once, but i was just as taken back as when i saw dogville. Von Trier is a genius who uses allegory of slavery to portray the events going on in the world right now. Using the past to present current events, is highly affective with the actors all on top of their games. As is the cinematography and the setting, which takes place on a stage. Every problem that comes with grace taking over the plantaion reflects the past and present of policies by USA that affect the world. Questions of exporting democracy and institutions like the world bank arise in the middle as the film. i can go on and on about layers and layers of issues. The dark humor of von trier is at its best and the i cant wait for the next one in the trilogy.
D. B. gave it an8:
This is an excellent movie. The fact that it is a serious, biting, playfully cruel film that uses a Brechtian alienation style to further its criticism of the United States to a quiet intellectual firestorm may be too much for most moviegoers (or critics) to handle. The problem is that none of these critics here are the type of people who enjoy extremely unconventional films. When they see something like MANDERLAY, they cannot get past the ideas the film is trying to convey. Yes, its about slavery, its a criticism of the United States, and it is unrealistic in its portrayal of American people. Of course its unrealistic; movies always are. What they can't seem to appreciate is the entertainment value of this film: its yet another deranged sociological experiment conducted on a barren soundstage that is well written, exceptionally well acted, and quite a lot of fun if you don't get bogged down in its message. Many critics point to von Trier's prankster attitude when levelling his targets (and they seem perturbed by it) but its this same sense of extremely dark fun that makes his movies compulsively watchable. The thrill of watching a microcosm of the most powerful society on Earth go through hardship, then success, then even crueller hardship with the intricate, loving, illuminating and sometimes brilliant detail of excellent minimalist literature is thrilling in its own quiet way. Seeing the human drama of these warped, ideologically charged events portrayed here with shocking subtlety and power by the top-notch cast adds more the layers of interest and connection. If this film was a play, no doubt it would get much more positive reviews than it has. Come to think of it, its purposely stripped-down setting makes it a little like theatre, with an omnipresent audience. And rest assured this film has all the elements of good theatre. Certainly not everybody likes (or can appreciate) good theatre, especially film critics, but if you can, or are interested in something different that will provoke both thought and emotion, see the more twisted (and consequently slightly more effective) DOGVILLE first, and then pull up a chair and prepare to be assaulted by the cool venom of this second installment. And rest assured, any film that will provoke a 15 year old such as myself to write this long a review will surely not bore you if you are inclined to watch movies more intelligent than CLICK or X-MEN III.
Jeremy gave it a5:
Nice idea that feels routinely filmed and edited. There's not one single shot that equals Grace's arrival in Dogville, her bloody farewell or any other shot from Dogville.
Prudence K. gave it a10:
Best film ever? Maybe. Best direction ever? Maybe. Incredible masterpiece? No doubt about it!
