Dogville's tongue-clucking point-and von Trier makes it broadly-is the hypocrisy of the Good Samaritan, but a less clinical film could have done so more powerfully.

Kidman has never lacked the courage to perform in innovative productions on stage and screen, such as The Blue Room and Eyes Wide Shut. In this film, which is a bit of both, she acquits herself gamely.

For its exuberance and its difference, its fine performances and its devastating finale, Dogville is essential viewing.

A seductive cocktail of crushing cynicism, Dogville plays like Au Hasard Balthazar and the Stanford prison experiment mixed with the tunes of John Wesley Harding.