Review of Dear Wendy (2005) by Benjamin F — 23 Jan 2009

This movie gets a lot of hate. Mostly from people interpreting the film's story in a very narrow kneejerk manner - what do we get? People who don't get it. I know that's pretty much THE excuse to shield anything from criticism, but you do have to look at the source and nature of the criticism, and a lot of it does seem to come from a lack of understanding what the film's about.

I'm not quite sure how this happens, since while the film's complicated, there's a lot more going on here than any semblance of one-sided anti-American tirade about guns like so many seem keen on representing it as.

In fact, I never got any sense of the film being "anti-American," nor 100% necessarily anti-guns themselves. It was a character piece first and foremost - a love story between unhappy young people looking for acceptance and their antique guns.

You get an interesting portrait of dangerous fascination with weapons and the psychological impact they can make on people through the Dandies. It's less interested in discussing the philosophical ramifications of pacifists carrying guns and more the impact the guns make on these young people as they develop towards adulthood.

The cast is strong - without a single bad performance - and great set of characters. Alison Pill shines as one of the few female characters, Jamie Bell's a strong lead, Bill Pullman does indeed rock, and Danso Gordon has an especially key role in being the voice of reason in the Dandies.

The set - though small - is shot in enough interesting ways that you won't get sick of looking at it over the near two hours the film lasts, and it's absolutely gorgeous in design. The use of language is definitely a little on the strange side - the script wasn't originally written in English, after all - but it works.

The narration is compelling and interesting - a little clumsy, at times slightly to the film's detriment, but at the same time the clumsiness is believable in the adolescence of Bell's character.

The premise is absolutely original, and Dear Wendy is easily one of the freshest films I've seen in years. The soundtrack is great - between its complementary background music and songs by The Zombies.

The execution of the film is strong throughout - a little slow, but it helps build to the film's absolutely epic climax. The violence is absolutely intense when it inevitably breaks out, but at the same time, the characters' disconnection from it is wonderfully portrayed in their removal from reality - as the majority of the cast is - and there's a lot of very interesting visual elements brought in to give the shoot out a completely fresh and original feeling, emphasizing the brutality.

I'm utterly puzzled as to how so many have completely misinterpreted the film or simply taken it as a vicious attack on America. You'd really have to go out of your way to dig for a one-sided and inflammatory message in the film like that.

Dear Wendy is ultimately simply a very strange, very funny, and absolutely original film by Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier. It gets my personal thumbs up.