Two new releases are defined by an inability to fathom another culture—Reel Paradise, a U.S. documentary about an American spending a year in the South Pacific with his family, and Dear Wendy, a Danish feature with English dialogue that was shot in rural Denmark and Germany but is set in a poor mining town in the American southeast. Both demonstrate a middle-class complacency that fosters this inadequacy.
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The acknowledged subject of Dear Wendy, written by Lars von Trier and directed by Thomas Vinterberg, is the American obsession with guns and violence. “Wendy” is a small handgun that’s addressed, fondled, and ultimately used by the young narrator-hero played by Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), who prides himself on being a pacifist even after he starts a gun club, the Dandies. Like the other misfits in the club, he claims to be interested only in target practice, but when they wind up in a bloody shoot-out with the police (among them Bill Pullman) we aren’t the least bit surprised. The meaning is transparent—Vinterberg has been quoted saying, “Pacifists with weapons is what most of the Western world consider themselves”—but the Dandies also wear costumes and have rituals that seem designed to recall teenage bloodbaths in places like Columbine. The film is well acted and directed, but many of the characters and events are completely implausible—for instance, the cops turn a young black criminal over to the Dandies. Of course the filmmakers can always justify such details by calling the film allegorical.
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
Written by Lars von Trier
With Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Alison Pill, Danso Gordon, Michael Angarano, Novello Nelson, Chris Owen, and Mark Webber
Reel Paradise ★★ (Worth seeing)
Directed by Steve James
