Thomas Vinterberg - Dear Wendy
Dear Wendy
directed by Thomas Vinterberg
2005
Denmark / France
Dick (Narrator): Blahhh
If you want to understand Dear Wendy, look no further than its tagline: “One shot is all it takes.” I entered the theatre with mild anticipation having heard the plot, seeing scraps of the artwork and hearing Lars Von Trier (Manderlay) wrote it. It reeked strongly of disappointment.
Jamie Bell plays a lost protagonist who wanders his small mining town for thirty minutes of film before falling in love with a gun. Far from being some glorious archetype for the viewer to adore, this gun becomes the first of many guns explained in torturously technical detail. The only argument for sympathizing with their loves is that they’re bored and extraordinarily desperate for something meaningful in their lives. This is hardly a compelling argument to care about their firearms, much less the entire plot. What I once thought would be a dynamic setting soon becomes a dusty sandbox that makes me claustrophobic. By the time a black gunslinger comes to usurp the “Dandies” throne and steal the bland actress from Dick, the audience’s yawns drown out the dialogue.
The Dandies’ final stand painfully extends what should be cause for celebration (the film’s apparent end). Whether it’s an attempt at scathing commentary on Americans’ gun fixation or just a haphazard escape from a story gone astray, the ending is meaningless. I have a hard time seeing eye-to-eye with viewers who remark: “Is this an amusingly ironic riff on our culture or what ?!” Mostly because it’s not deep, not amusing and a fair movie at best. Consolation prizes go to the soundtrack and a few actors who did their best within a framework geared toward disaster.
Donald