Antichrist

Made while Danish director Lars von Trier was in the throes of deep depression, this grim psychosexual-religious-horror story begins with an unnamed married couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) engaged in slow-motion, steamy shower sex accompanied by a Handel vocal piece. As their passionate lovemaking moves to the bedroom, the pair's toddler son crawls out of his crib, climbs onto the window sill, and falls to his death—a tragedy that propels the rest of the film, which is divided into chapters called Grief, Pain, and Despair. The husband, an insightful, passive-aggressive psychotherapist, attempts to help his crazed, distraught wife handle her guilt. Reluctantly, she agrees to go with him to the vacation home they call Eden—a remote cabin deep in the dark forest—to face her worst fears. Without going into too much detail, suffice to say that the manner in which they choose to handle the debilitating sadness of their bereavement and its accompanying anger involves explicit images of masturbation, torture, brutality, and genital mutilation. Dafoe has always been an edgy actor, and here he throws himself into malevolent madness, while Gainsbourg reaches her own manic crescendo. But many will see in Antichrist another personification of von Trier's seeming aversion toward (if not hatred of) women, as evidenced in previous works such as Breaking the Waves and Dogville. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Lars von Trier and film scholar Murray Smith, seven production featurettes (64 min. total), an interview with costar Charlotte Gainsbourgh (44 min.), three segments on the Cannes Film Festival premiere (22 min.), interviews with costar William Dafoe (18 min.) and von Trier (5 min.), a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a film that repulsed most audiences.] (S. Granger)