Nymphomaniac (2013)

NYMPHOMANIAC  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Lars von Trier
    Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin,
    Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, 
    Jamie Bell, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Willem Dafoe,
    Connie Nielsen, Udo Kier, Jean-Marc Barr, Mia Goth
A man finds a woman bleeding in an alley, takes her back to his gloomy flat, and spends the night listening to her tell stories about her life as a nymphomaniac. This movie is bold, playful, disturbing, provocative, beautiful, inventive, ridiculous, illuminating, pornographic, contrived, profound, self-indulgent and sick - all the contradictory things Lars von Trier's movies can be. Plus, the uncut version (Parts 1 & 2) runs five-and-a-half hours. That's a lot of Lars von Trier. It's never boring, though. Its uninhibited sexuality might have something to do with that, but so do the performances of Stellan Skarsgård as a sort of secular priest hearing the woman's confession, and Charlotte Gainsbourg (lately von Trier's resident muse) as the bruised, conflicted heroine. Apparently thanks to some state-of-the-art CGI, the actors aren't always doing what it looks like they're doing in those down-and-dirty sex scenes. They sure look convincing, though. If you didn't know any better, you'd never know. Which still leaves you admiring the courage of the actors, especially the long-suffering Gainsbourg. And scratching your head about Lars von Trier.