Dogville

Synopsis

POOPER:
In the isolated town of Dogville, a fugitive named Grace (Nicole Kidman) is sheltered by would-be moralist Tom (Paul Bettany) after fleeing gangsters. The wary townspeople agree to let her stay if she works for them. At first, she earns acceptance, but when police posters brand her missing and then wanted, the town exploits her vulnerability. Wages are cut, workloads rise, and the men begin abusing her. After a failed escape and Tom’s betrayal, Grace is chained and repeatedly assaulted. When the gangsters return, they reveal her father is their boss. Convinced Dogville is irredeemable, Grace orders the town massacred and personally kills Tom before leaving.

FULL SPOILER:
In the stark, isolated town of Dogville, tucked along a barren stretch of Elm Street, life moves at a slow and uneventful pace. The self-appointed town philosopher, Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), fancies himself a moral guide to his modest neighbors. One night, gunshots echo through the hills, and Tom discovers a frightened woman hiding in the darkness. Her name is Grace (Nicole Kidman), and she is fleeing dangerous gangsters.

Tom hides her in an abandoned mine and later persuades the suspicious townspeople to let her remain for a two-week trial. In exchange, Grace offers labor. She spends an hour each day assisting every household, performing small but meaningful tasks. She helps care for Vera and Chuck’s children, comforts a lonely blind man named McKay, weeds gardens, assists the local organist, and gently wins over even the skeptical Liz, Tom’s sister. Slowly, the town softens toward her. When the vote comes, she initially receives fourteen out of fifteen bells, but at the last second the final bell rings. She is allowed to stay.

As seasons pass, Grace becomes woven into Dogville’s daily life. She earns modest wages and begins purchasing delicate porcelain figurines she admires in a shop window. She grows closer to Tom, and there is an air of fragile happiness. But the outside world intrudes. A policeman arrives first with a missing poster, then later with a wanted notice accusing Grace of bank robbery. Although the timeline proves her innocence, fear takes root in Dogville. The townspeople decide that harboring Grace now comes at a cost. They cut her wages, increase her workload, and justify their demands as necessary protection.

What begins as guarded self-interest evolves into cruelty. The townspeople realize Grace has nowhere to go. Chuck corners and rapes her. McKay exploits her vulnerability. Vera turns against her after believing rumors of an affair, destroying Grace’s cherished figurines in a calculated act of humiliation. Even the children manipulate and threaten her. Tom, who claims to love Grace, offers sympathy but no real protection. When he attempts to arrange her escape, the plan collapses; she is assaulted again and returned to town. To prevent another attempt, the townspeople shackle a heavy iron collar around her neck, chaining her to a wheel she must drag wherever she goes.

Grace’s suffering becomes systematic. The men of Dogville rape her repeatedly. The women justify or ignore the abuse. Tom’s moral posturing disintegrates into resentment when Grace refuses to be intimate with him. At a meeting meant to address her mistreatment, the townspeople demand that Tom choose between them and Grace. He chooses Grace in words, but his resolve falters. Ultimately, in bitterness and frustration, Tom calls the gangster whose card he has kept since Grace’s arrival, intending to rid himself of her.

The gangsters return in force, armed and efficient. To Tom’s surprise, they are appalled at Grace’s condition. Her iron collar is removed, and she is escorted to a waiting black car, where she reunites with her father, the crime boss she had fled. Their conversation reframes everything. He criticizes her boundless forgiveness as arrogance, arguing that by excusing Dogville’s cruelty, she denies them moral responsibility. Grace resists at first, clinging to the belief that the town is better than the criminal world she left. But as she reflects on the relentless exploitation and hypocrisy she endured, her certainty crumbles.

When Tom approaches, apologizing for his weakness, it is too late. Grace returns to the car and makes her decision. She orders the gangsters to execute the townspeople and burn Dogville to the ground. She gives special instructions that Vera’s children be killed before her, mirroring Vera’s earlier cruelty. As gunfire tears through the town and flames consume its fragile facades, Grace watches in tears but does not intervene.

In the end, she personally shoots Tom, the man who first welcomed her and ultimately betrayed her. Grace departs with her father, leaving nothing behind but ashes and the barking dog, the only creature spared.