Review: The House that Jack Built is forensically authentic, but ethically bare

It’s forensically authentic, but this Lars von Trier-directed insight into a pro-level psychopath is a film we could do without, writes Leigh Paatsch.

Matt Dillon’s character of Jack is a twisted man.

Oh. Look. Someone has gone and made a serial killer movie that only a serial killer could truly appreciate.

That is not a recommendation, by the way, but more indicative of the non-existent audience out there for this forensically authentic, yet ethically deficient fare.

The someone who made the movie just happens to be the controversial Danish director Lars von Trier, a once-brilliant filmmaker now reduced to provoking shock and outrage wherever he can. Mainly to remind himself he still exists.

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Uma Thurman and Matt Dillon star in The House That Jack Built.

Dillon’s character is a pro-level psychopath.

Matt Dillon plays Jack, a twisted fella strolling down a memory lane that passes just five of the many murderous “incidents” he has designed in his time as a pro-level psychopath.

The first involves bludgeoning Uma Thurman to death with a tyre wrench. The rest don’t even bear mentioning here.

Over Two-and-a-half torturous hours, a few half-cocked hints are dropped that this cavalcade of carnage is actually a commentary on the emptiness of contemporary art, the disconnecting nature of our connected world, and the enduring psychological divide that separates women from men.

These points are valid enough, but could have been covered in a 15-minute short without the need for all that gruesome mutilation and dismemberment.

The House That Jack Built (R18+)

Director: Lars von Trier (Melancholia)

Starring: Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Bruno Ganz, Riley Keough.

Rating: *

Evict yourself immediately

The House That Jack Built is now showing at the Cinema Nova, Carlton