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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Dancer In The Dark
Fine Line Features


9.0

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 50 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for some violence

Starring Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare, and Joel Grey

Bjork stars as Selma, a Czech immigrant and single mother working in a factory in rural America. She is losing her eyesight and her 10 year-old son stands to suffer the same fate if she can't put away enough money to secure him an operation. (FilmFour)

GENRE(S):	Musical
WRITTEN BY:	Lars von Trier
DIRECTED BY:	Lars von Trier
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 20, 2001 Video: March 20, 2001 Theatrical: September 22, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	140 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany/ Netherlands / UK/ Denmark / France

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...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

A thrilling, audacious work.

100

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

One of the most searing experiences to be had at the movies this year.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

For all its fancy pedigree, the spellbinding Dancer in the Dark aims right for the heart and aces its target.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Easily the year's most trying, tormented, and thrilling movie ordeal.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

A movie too smart and too urgent to be categorically awful. Clinically insane may be another matter altogether.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

(The film is) one of the most anguished, intense and weirdly brilliant of the year.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is a bold, reckless gesture.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Can be unbearably moving or annoyingly mawkish, sometimes in the same scene.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

I was astonished to find myself weeping copiously over von Trier's latest, which is another parable of monomaniacal sainthood.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

You may leave this movie exhilarated by its no-holds-barred boldness or annoyed and bewildered at the unpredictable course it takes.

Newsweek David Ansen

Bjork gives what may be the most wrenching performance ever given by someone who has no interest in being an actor.

Film.com Peter Brunette

This is a film like no other this year, and on that grounds alone you should see it.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A film of so much daring, a film that takes so many chances, it's impossible not to be impressed.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The song-and-dance numbers that make this musical tragedy a celebration of life despite its awfully grim climax.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Ought to win a prize for sheer audacity.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

This deliriously downbeat vehicle for the postpunk diva Björk has generated the controversy the Danish dogmatist has relentlessly court.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Slow and depressing, but ultimately haunting film.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Leaves you questioning its intentions.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

My only reason to recommend this movie is that there's nothing quite like it.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Aside from Bjork's astonishing performance, it's a grim tragedy that's deliberately drab and exceedingly painful to watch.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Both stupefyingly bad and utterly overpowering; it can elicit, sometimes within a single scene, a gasp of rapture and a spasm of revulsion.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Like a naive modernist hymn made by someone who doesn't, deep down, believe in hymns.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

What is meant to be an innovative, cutting-edge musical melodrama is so jumbled, irrational and amateurish that it makes dinner theater look like the Old Vic.

USA Today Mike Clark

This is the kind of movie that has always polarized serious film folk, while the public usually elects to stay home and prune shrubs.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

If it weren't for a terrific central performance by the Icelandic pop singer Bjork, Dancer in the Dark would be all but unwatchable.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A movie that by turns is wincingly awful and heartbreakingly fine. It boasts an unforgettable performance by Björk.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Fairly incompetent as a musical and rather silly as a drama.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Two-and-a-half hour slice of unmitigated depression.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Lars von Trier is a mechanic, not an artist. And his movies are meat grinders he feeds his characters through.

Slate David Edelstein

At times the movie's crudeness has an eerie beauty, but the musical fantasies are a bewildering hash, and the protracted climax on death row is nearly unendurable.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Björk holds the movie together, her natural charisma and the overwhelming intensity of her emotions should blind a lot of viewers to the ludicrousness of the story and the intentionally rotten videography.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

So exasperating in its contradictions, so frustrating in its fakery, so deeply irritating in its pretensions, it's frankly hard to know where to begin to dissect it.

Variety Derek Elley

A 2½-hour demo of auteurist self-importance that's artistically bankrupt on almost every level.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jeremy gave it a10:
[maybe spoilers] Spectacular movie. Spectacular performances. Had this been done by a major famous Hollywood director, it'd be up for an Oscar - if anything for Bjork's wondrous lead performance. One thing that bothers me most about the critics giving poor reviews (20s, 30s, 40s) is that they blame it on the depression. "This si 2.5 hours of pure depression," or "the climax: with death row unendurable." It bugs me cause THATS WHAT THE MOVIE IS! It's supposed to be gut-wrenching, and heart-wrenching. It's supposed to make you cry. Make you feel. Make you hate it. It drains you mentally and emotionally, and, sometimes, physically. It's not unendurable though, cause you need to see what happens to her. And then that last song and it's pure misery backing it up - it really gets to you. And when it gets cut off.... one of the most depressing and best endings I've seen to a movie. Though probably the most depressing movie I've ever seen, and probably one of the most depressing movies EVER MADE... it's incredibly well done and it ranks among my favorites.

Andrew W. gave it a10:
This movie is simply amazing to me. So emotionally moving.

Brett C. gave it a10:
It is the first movie that made me cry in years; Bjork's performance is mind blowing, though the camera work can be a bit frustrating, the movie itself is thrilling.

Joanne A. gave it a9:
A stunningly emotive film, as true to life as it wants to be. The morale, " They say it is the last song / They don't know us, you see / It's only the last song / If you let it be" is one to live your life by.

Craig B gave it an8:
This movie is disturbing, really disturbing. But disturbing in a good way because it confronts the viewer with a reality of capital punishment that its strongest advocates mostly are not willing to face. Bjork is one of the most talented singer/songwriters of our time, and it was interesting to see her abilities as an actress, as well. The film loses points for its unnecessary overuse of the shaky, handheld camera.

Amit S. gave it a9:
For all it's apperent flaws and misleadings, this film is deeply affective piece of art. Bjork is a compelling protagonist. Von Trier is infamous for 'brutalising' the actors. The authenticity of this comment should not be debated; as this detail is incosequential to us, the audience. What should be commended, is the film's audacity, it's bold vision and it's sincere if bleak honesty. I've found myself on repeated occasions thinking about this film.

Anne C. gave it a2:
This film is fascinating as a horror movie. I am horrified. Bjork's amazing voice and presence can't save the misdirected energy of this film from imploding. I feel embarassment for most involved other than Bjork who seems to live off of discomfort.

Dancer In The Dark Fine Line Features

Dancer In The Dark
Fine Line Features