by MATTHEW HAYS

Lars von Trier's films often evoke polar responses, and his latest, Dogville, will undoubtedly prove no exception. At Cannes last year it elicited shrill charges of anti-Americanism, a common theme at the festival.

It's a contentious film, both in terms of style and substance. But my sense is von Trier is using the most powerful nation on earth as a backdrop for a fable about the dire depths of human nature. This is not a happy film - but those looking for happiness in a von Trier movie must not know who the man is.

The plot is as stark as the stagey art direction: Nicole Kidman plays a depression-era woman on the lam from the Mafia. She arrives in a small town and seeks refuge there. Initially, the townsfolk of Dogville treat her well: she's a pretty young thing who needs a place to stay. She helps out with the chores. She teaches the children new lessons. The town philosopher is smitten with her. And when the police show up to seek her out, the townsfolk hide her.

For a while, anyway. After a time (and after, quite controversially, a singing of "America, the Beautiful"), the townsfolk begin, one by one, to turn on Kidman. Quite naturally, the men find her alluring. The women are jealous. The children, sensing her vulnerability, become manipulative. Horror and torment set in.

With his typically brilliant screenplay, von Trier evokes Our Town, the most frequently performed piece of theatre in the American canon. And, in a unique twist that will please Jean Baudrillard, critics of Dogville have noted that, despite its intense critique of America, the filmmaker has never set foot in the U.S. Von Trier also employs the style of Bertolt Brecht, the philosopher darling of the left (the entire affair is shot unapologetically on a soundstage, as a play captured on film). Though I know I've come under fire for occasionally championing an arthouse or semi-experimental film (not to mention that last Chucky sequel), the three-hour-long Dogville should not be dismissed. Don't let Ebert and Roeper put you off: Dogville is both deeply disturbing and an incredible achievement.

Dogville opens Friday, April 2

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