The House That Jack Built (2018)

I have been looking forward to seeing The House That Jack Built for quite some time, and I was even more interested in seeing it when many people walked out of it at Cannes. Lars von Trier is a provocateur after all, so if one of his movies gets that kind of reaction, it means that he succeeded.  

The House That Jack Built follows the story of Jack (Matt Dillon), a highly intelligent serial killer, over the course of twelve years and depicts the gruesome murders he committed that developed his inner madman.

I’d love to tell you more about it but the lack of a plot really makes it difficult for me to do that. The House That Jack Built is in fact some sort of collection of stories, murders stories, that are told by the serial killer himself and that lead to what’s probably the most disappointing ending of the year as it transforms an unevenly compelling drama into a ridiculous supernatural fantasy and made me feel like I wasted two and a half hours of my life —actually, it was more since I took many breaks in between because the film was unbearable. And by that, I mean boring, mostly because of its tedious dialogue and monologues. 

The characters are quite a disappointment too. Jack is the “hero” of the story and yet it feels like he’s a supporting character in someone else’s story because of how underdeveloped he is. For a film about and narrated by a serial killer, I was expecting to get to know the character way better than this. I mean, who is Jack? Why is he the way he is? What did trigger him the first time? We just get to know his victims. Well, know is a big word as the rest of the characters somehow manage to be even thinner than Jack. Not to mention how illogical and ridiculous their reactions are. I get the cop that just doesn’t care when Simple tells him about Jack, or that nobody cares when Simple is screaming for help as it is an accurate portrait of the society we live in, but the victims just act plain stupid.

Despite the lazy writing, Matt Dillon gives an incredibly compelling performance as Jack —perhaps the best of his career— and knows exactly how to handle the odd, dark humour. His excellent performance is the only reason I kept watching till the end. Uma Thurman who unfortunately dies in the first act also gives a strong performance as the woman with the broken jack/victim number 1.

TrustNordisk, IFC Films

No matter how lazy the writing is, the worst aspect of The House That Jack Built is the direction. As always, von Trier placed in the film some quite graphic scenes whose only purpose is to shock the audience. My problem with that is that they just weren't that shocking. Yes, some of the things Jack does and are shown to us are nasty, but they just don't feel brutal, nor shocking. They are cold. Just like the entire movie. Also, the shaky camera gets quite annoying after a while. The music, on the other hand, fits the film pretty well.