The House That Jack Built
Written by Elisabet Teixeira
I thought this was going to be more interesting...I thought this was going to be more interesting...
I was really looking forward to this one, even knowing that I´m not a Von Trier fan. I fell asleep in all of his movies. I did like this one though but I failed to understand what the fuss was about. Except for the duck scene. Poor duckie...
I´m pretty sure this is a black comedy. Otherwise, I´m a very bad person. I laughed in all the wrong scenes. Especially at the one where he drags the corpse of Incident 2, wrapped in plastic, with a rope attached at the end of his truck for lord knows how many miles.
The movie is beautifully shot and Matt Dillon´s performance is awesome. It´s a basic premise, we follow the work of a serial killer for 12 years and experience, with more or less detail, the gruesome killings that, for him, are a work of art.
Through all of the movie, we listen to the dialogue between Jack and Vergel, where Jack talks about what motivated him in each murder and the comparisons he does with art, architecture, and gets refuted by Vergel who insists that love must be the main element in art, not murder. I´m not going deep in that but yes, very interesting metaphors and ideas here. Though there´s nothing new.
And then the police finds "the house that Jack built", in a hurry I must say (and his finest architecture endeavor) and after that, I lost interest. Lars Von Trier turned into David Lynch and the movie made a very meh turn.
For me, the movie should have ended there. But instead, it has a very expendable 40-minute scene of Jack´s descent into hell, lead by Vergel, that ends in one of the most anticlimax movie endings ever. Such a shame...
Overall, a nice movie but not really worth all the hype. I kept thinking about "Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer". I know, different but I couldn´t stop thinking about it. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give this is a 3.5. Good movie but I kinda expected more.
Wiki:
IMDB: