"The House That Jack Built" is the newest film release by controversial Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier, in his 60s now, and it is a really long movie at 2.5 hours. After his take on sex in Nymphomaniac, it is all about murder in this one here as we are taken into the world of a serial killer's mind. He is played by Oscar nominee Matt Dillon and in pretty much every scene from start to finish. There are several chapters early on that present to us chronologically how Jack moves from one murder to the next, how he eventually plans to kill several and also how it all began, namely with Thurman's character provoking him. Yep Uma Thurman who from being Tarantino's muse has somewhat moved on to von Trier. She already was a true scene stealer in Nymphomaniac as well and she is almost as good in here early on. Well, this is an extremely violent movie we have here. I will not go much into detail about what you see exactly, but if you are mild-mannered, then skip the watch here. People are graphically murdered in various ways on several occasions throughout the entire film, there is one scene particularly painful when we see the protagonist cut off his lover's breasts. And how macabre it all is we find out later on seeing how he made a purse out of one breast. But maybe what is even more bizarre are the looks of the one boy that he gunned down during the hunting experience. Regardless if it is lovers, children, strangers or old friends he murders, there is never remorse and the main character sure is an evil genius. But the way he (almost) gets caught in the end with the siren is almost a bit too easy, too amateurish for him. Or did he want to die after fulfilling his masterpiece, the full metal jacket sequence? I doubt it, would not have fit the character. You could also wonder to which extent Bruno Ganz' character really exists or if he is all in the mind of the main character only. As we see him walk down to hell in the end, the film feels entirely different compared to everything before that. And not better in my opinion, which is quite a shame because I really adore Ganz and it makes me somewhat sad how old he looks in here. Anyway, he plays the killer's conversation partner from start to end, even if we only hear voiceovers most of the time like he was some kind of psychologist speaking with him. And there is also that recurring argument between them about what makes something art. Is love essential for art? The killer of course says no. He sees himself as an engineer, an architect, but also as an artist and his creation consists of the lives he has been taking. This does not only refer to his secret hideout, but also to other scenes like the crow grave with the mother and two children in the hunting ground I mentioned earlier.
The one scene that shocked me the most was certainly when he was clipping of the baby duck's leg mutilating it and I am relieved to see it was not real and just a prop fake leg. Otherwise I would have rated the film considerably lower, but yeah aside from the question if you should let a boy cut off a duck's leg for a movie, I am also glad there is animal protection present in films these days. I am not too shocked this was more disturbing to me than all the pain caused to humans because I knew all of this was staged and fake and nobody was really hurt. But with animals you cannot be too sure, especially as said scene added almost nothing except the common perception that serial killers show destructive tendencies already also in their junior years, but nothing that stands out or so. So yeah, a lot of the violence here feels for the sake of it, but still it is a decent film in my opinion. von Trier sure knows how to entertain and there is definitely not just a sadistic note to the film that will make us smile or even laugh more than we should, but there is some extremely bizarre humor in this film, like for example the scene early on when he tries to get into the widow lady's house and how he turns from police officer to insurance salesman within minutes to succeed. Also liked the reaction from him when he is seen by somebody passing by. Or another somewhat morbidly funny moment later on is when he plays the alcoholic outside tricking the cop into thinking everything is pretty much alright. You will laugh here, maybe even a lot and that is not a given for a LvT movie. What else can I add? Oh yeah, lets not forget that Dillon gives a pretty good performance here and carries the film nicely. He may not be entirely on par with Ganz at the end, but other than that it is absolutely his film and probably not many actors would have given a better portrayal. Physically he is fine for the role too. Apart from that, I think the dialogue writing is very smart constantly and maybe the best thing of the film. I read that audiences left theaters watching this one while others applauded towards the end, but the general reception was not too great it seems. I still enjoyed it though and yeah, even if I gave a rating somewhere in the middle, it is another von Trier work that most people will love or hate. I myself give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out, if you think you are capable of stomaching all the excessive violence that is. Yeah it is not as meaningful and deep as it aspires to be a lot of the time, but it does not need to be in order to be a success. Him falling down was also the really right choice for the ending. Speaking about endings, this is where I end my review.
The one scene that shocked me the most was certainly when he was clipping of the baby duck's leg mutilating it and I am relieved to see it was not real and just a prop fake leg. Otherwise I would have rated the film considerably lower, but yeah aside from the question if you should let a boy cut off a duck's leg for a movie, I am also glad there is animal protection present in films these days. I am not too shocked this was more disturbing to me than all the pain caused to humans because I knew all of this was staged and fake and nobody was really hurt. But with animals you cannot be too sure, especially as said scene added almost nothing except the common perception that serial killers show destructive tendencies already also in their junior years, but nothing that stands out or so. So yeah, a lot of the violence here feels for the sake of it, but still it is a decent film in my opinion. von Trier sure knows how to entertain and there is definitely not just a sadistic note to the film that will make us smile or even laugh more than we should, but there is some extremely bizarre humor in this film, like for example the scene early on when he tries to get into the widow lady's house and how he turns from police officer to insurance salesman within minutes to succeed. Also liked the reaction from him when he is seen by somebody passing by. Or another somewhat morbidly funny moment later on is when he plays the alcoholic outside tricking the cop into thinking everything is pretty much alright. You will laugh here, maybe even a lot and that is not a given for a LvT movie. What else can I add? Oh yeah, lets not forget that Dillon gives a pretty good performance here and carries the film nicely. He may not be entirely on par with Ganz at the end, but other than that it is absolutely his film and probably not many actors would have given a better portrayal. Physically he is fine for the role too. Apart from that, I think the dialogue writing is very smart constantly and maybe the best thing of the film. I read that audiences left theaters watching this one while others applauded towards the end, but the general reception was not too great it seems. I still enjoyed it though and yeah, even if I gave a rating somewhere in the middle, it is another von Trier work that most people will love or hate. I myself give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out, if you think you are capable of stomaching all the excessive violence that is. Yeah it is not as meaningful and deep as it aspires to be a lot of the time, but it does not need to be in order to be a success. Him falling down was also the really right choice for the ending. Speaking about endings, this is where I end my review.