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"Dear Wendy" Movie Review |
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Tuesday, 10 January 2006 |
By Timothy Chow
 If you haven't watched five movies in various theatres spread out across downtown, all in one day, you really
should give it a try some time. I can see what those hardcore TIFF
moviegoers talk about, that feeling of…festival fever I guess. Of
waking up at absurd hours just to watch some random movie, ending up
LOVING it, then needing to run out of the theatre afterwards so you can
catch the transit that'll take you to your next movie in 30 minutes
half way on the other side of downtown. It's positively invigorating:
needing to run from one movie to another, having 5 minutes to eat lunch
and 20 for dinner, standing in huge massive lines that go on and on,
talking to random people beside you, attending random Q&A sessions
after movies - it all adds up to a lot of fun. Especially when 250,000
other people are doing this at the same time you are. In a limited
confined downtown area. Hahahahahaha. With the possibility of spotting
random celebrities. Heh. Anyways, too bad the festival's over now, next
year it is next year....
Anyway, I had a great day, even if I got very little sleep and though I
spent like 8 hours (a third of a day!) watching movies. It started off
with my dad graciously offering me a ride downtown, and since the
theatre was nearby, we just had some breakfast and then separated
afterwards. At 10 am, I caught Thomas Vinterberg's Dear Wendy, a BRILLIANT film that defies easy description. Written by Lars Von Trier, author of notable movies like Manderlay, Dogville and Dancer In The Dark,
it's a story set in middle-class small-town America, time unknown, name
unknown. Dick, (played excellently by Jamie Bell) is an outcast within
town, refusing to work in the mines where all the "real men" work.
Instead, with the help of his maid/friend/mother Clarabelle, he takes
up a job at the convenience store where he meets Stevie (Mark Webber).
A self-proclaimed "pacifist", Dick decides one day to get a toy gun for
Clarabelle's grandson's birthday, before realizing it would not make a
very suitable gift. Instead, he decides to carry the gun with him,
using it as a moral support, never to be brandished or shown in public
but always there just for comfort. With the help of Stevie, the two
decide to ask the other three "losers" of Electric Park Square to join
their secret society of pacifists with guns: their name, The Dandies.
They develop an amusing roster of code phrases, costumes and secret
club rites. In short, their own little teenage club, except with guns
as their partners instead of imaginary friends. The movie tells their
tale, any more revealed would be a sin.
In all honesty, I don't know how to approach the analysis of this movie
without wanting to jump out of your computer monitor, shake your
shoulders and yell at you to watch it as SOON AS POSSIBLE. It is
without doubt, my favorite movie of the year. It's a slew of
adjectives, including brilliant, dark, funny, intelligent, witty,
stylized, depressing, pensive, angry and very, very
I felt that Vinterberg and von Trier did an amazing job of writing and
directing the film; it didn't feel heavy handed at all, and their
unique approach to developing the story and showing it on celluloid is
worthy of immense praise. I spent the entire day watching other films
and in the middle of each, going back to Dear Wendy
and trying to analyze why I liked it so much, but I couldn't figure it
out. And many hours later now, I still can't. There's just something
about the way that everything worked out, the story, the way that the
film was stylized and presented, the amazing actors, the incredible
range of emotions and investment that it required from its viewers.
Least of all, its allegorical message wasn't even as harsh and accusing
as all the critics have made it out to be. It was sort of subtle, in an
obvious kind of way. But as the soundtrack goes…it's the time... of the season (duh duh duh!) when love runs high...
In comparison, the other four films don't really matter.
5 out of 5 stars
emotional. Critics, and by-and-large American critics
specifically, have savaged it since its January premiere at Sundance
for being anti-American, but they're totally missing the point. What is
the point you ask? It's that you can be critical of the second
amendment and the American gun culture yet not be critical of Americans
as a whole. |
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