Dear Wendy (2005)

Thomas Vinterberg returns to Sundance (It's All About Love screened in 2003) with a brand-new vision that succeeds both viscerally and intellectually. Imaginatively merging genres into a highly atmospheric love story between a boy and his gun, Vinterberg, along with screenwriter Lars von Trier, concocts a riveting allegory about the corruptible power of man's deadly invention. Dick, an 18-year-old loner, lives in a blue-collar American mining town. When he happens upon a small handgun one day, he finds himself strangely drawn to it, despite his fervent pacifist views. Together with his newfound partner, he soon convinces the other young outcasts in the town to join him in a secret club he calls The Dandies, a club based on the principles of pacifism and guns. Despite their firm belief in the most important Dandy rule of all--never draw your weapon--the club members soon find themselves in a predicament where they realize that rules are made to be broken. Dear Wendy possesses such creative audacity, such a flow of ideas and provocative observations that it will both challenge and satisfy you. At turns adventurous, playful, theatrical, and serious, this inspired combination of biting commentary and cinematic reverie is such a singular vision that every frame bursts with imagery and ideas. With splendid cinematography inspired by Edward Curtis's controversial American Indian photographs, Vinterberg lushly creates a world lost in time but poignantly relative today.— Trevor Groth (from sundance.org)