ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

ONE OF THE great mysteries of America is the country’s love affair with the gun. Maybe it all stems from a romantic notion of the wild frontier and the men who tamed the West.

The right to bear arms is in the constitution and has created a culture that is gun crazy. The gulf between myth and reality is at the heart of ‘Dear Wendy’, the latest film from Festen director Thomas Vinterberg.

Jamie Bell stars as Dick, a sensitive, smalltown teenager who refuses to follow the crowd and work in the local coal mine. Wendy is an antique pistol that he buys and finds strangely comforting. Dick is a pacifist but comes to regard the gun as a friend, and soon forms a secret society known as the Dandies.

The members are all local misfits and outsiders who gain in self-confidence as they develop a fascination with firearms. The dynamic of the group is changed when Dick is asked to help a young black man, Sebastian (Danso Gordon), and the film moves inevitably towards tragedy.

‘Dear Wendy’ was written by Lars Von Trier, and has the same kind of experimental feel and undercurrent of anti-Americanism that were apparent in his films ‘Dogville’ and ‘Manderlay’.

It is a strange, offbeat film, and its intentions remain murky and obscure. When the tale moves towards its dramatic climax any sense of conviction is abandoned and veers perilously close to the ridiculous. Bell is very good as the leader of the gang, but ‘Dear Wendy’ is an odd and unpersuasive tale.

General release, selected cinemas
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Stars: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson
Screenwriter: Lars von Trier
Certificate: 15
Running time: 105 mins
Country: Denmark
Year: 2004

© Allan Hunter, 2005