Part 2 of Lars von Triers projected US History trilogy that
began with Dogville, Manderlay is thus the second installment of his
finger-wagging chronicle of American ugliness. Race relations, this time in
1930s Alabama,
where slavery continued unchecked since the Civil War, again come under
scrutiny in the abstract provocative Dogmatic style the Danish director is
known for. Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Nicole Kidman as Grace, the slave
liberator, and John Hurt reprises his role as the ironic narrator. Based partly
on the preface to Jean Paulhans Lhistoire dOHappiness in Slavery, the
manipulative, polemically driven rhetoric can pall and with too many longeurs,
self-defeating ennui is never far behind.