NICE PLACE, BUT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO HIDE THERE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

LARS VON TRIER'S ``Dogville'' should be more demanding. More maddening and enraging, too.

It probably will be all those things, and worse, for some viewers. But what's amazing about von Trier's alienating ploys is how quickly they make the movie enthralling. What starts out as distracting works to bring us in closer to what we should be concentrating on: the passion of Nicole Kidman's tragic heroine, and what her suffering says about the hope of all mankind.

OK, chaining her to a heavy iron grind wheel is definitely too much, even metaphorically speaking. But, for the most part, von Trier potentially annoys by pretending not to make a movie at all. Everything unfolds on a single stage, with buildings, walls and even the town's namesake pooch marked by nothing but chalk drawings on the floor. Further, his dialogue is so unnaturally flowery, theoretical and theatrical, the 1930s-set drama sounds like ``Our Town'' rewritten by Eugene O'Neill on a day when he was feeling really pessimistic about mankind. Von Trier shot it all on video, in long takes, with lots of jump cuts.

And it is three hours long. Yet, somehow, those hours fill our memories with indelibly seared images. And it unfolds like a living thing, thanks to a magnificent cast's breath-giving ability. Few things this stylized have ever felt, at the same time, so palpably, pitiably human.

Divided into chapters that are introduced by John Hurt's melodiously dismissive, off-screen narration, ``Dogville'' tells a morality tale that may be a thinly veiled attack on American hypocrisy or might just as easily be a universal tragedy, in which curdled idealism gives way to corrupting power. The awful logic of either interpretation is mesmerizing.

Life in the mountain hamlet of Dogville, Colo., is not fabulous during the Depression, but things could be worse. Citizens generally get along and muddle through, although the village's self-appointed philosopher and moral pundit, Tom Edison Jr., bears sometimes-disguised contempt for his less-enlightened neighbors.

It's a mutual denigration society. Most think Tom, the doctor's son - a writer who doesn't write, nor do much of anything else except give boring lectures on accepting others - is a pompous wimp. When, one cold night, beautiful stranger Grace seeks refuge from distant gunfire in Dogville's abandoned mine, Tom sees an opportunity to put his theories into action. Eventually, the town folk show what they think of him and his lofty notions as well.

Of course, our hero is compromised from the get-go. Tom (``Master and Commander's'' cerebral Paul Bettany) is smitten by Kidman's lovely Grace at first sight, but he's too inexperienced to recognize the difference between lust and true love. We later discover that Grace, apparently on the lam from gangland types, is working through an even nobler, more destructive, delusion.

Tom convinces the town to harbor Grace. In return, the self-effacing beauty offers to perform services for each household. Good, self-sufficient folks all, no Dogvillean can think of any help they need at first. But Grace can do wonderful things, and everybody comes to love her.

Until, that is, the sheriff makes a rare visit, bearing wanted posters of Grace. Everyone understands that she's innocent of the crimes; Grace was with them when they allegedly were committed. But, gee, with authorities now involved, isn't sheltering her a little riskier? Shouldn't she work a little harder for everybody in return for their protection?

From that point, the town turns ever more venally and viciously against its captive guest. Only the purity of their love sustains both the impotent (in more ways than one) Tom and the hapless Grace. Or so it appears. What each of these elevated souls is capable of doing to one another might be far worse than anything the meaner denizens could imagine.

``Dogville'' is populated by a great, eclectic cast - Lauren Bacall, Blair Brown, Patricia Clarkson, Ben Gazzara, Chloe Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgard and more - who negotiate the turns from kindness to cruelty and self-examination to self-protecting close-mindedness with terrifying dexterity. But the real acting here is between Bettany and Kidman, who register their characters' conflicting motives with the subtlest facial expressions and vocal phrasings - for the better part of three blessed hours, without a false emotional second between them.

Those who love, hate or wincingly tolerate von Trier might assume that the eccentric Danish director is just out to punish his self-martyring heroine and, by extension, his audience again. But by the end, ``Dogville'' is a far, far different place than ``Breaking the Waves'' and ``Dancer in the Dark's'' isolated burgs were. It's a place where we can even feel cathartic vindication as a mighty judgment comes to town. And if we do, it will come with the devastating realization that Dogville is where we reside as well.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

DOGVILLE - Four stars

(R: violence, sex, nudity, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Harriet Andersson, Lauren Bacall, Blair Brown, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Ben Gazzara, Philip Baker Hall, John Hurt, Chloe Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgard.

Director: Lars von Trier.

Running time: 2 hr. 57 min.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Rialto, South Pasadena; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Westside Pavilion, West L.A.; Monica, Santa Monica; South Coast Village 3, Costa Mesa.

In a nutshell: Brilliantly acted, severely stylized parable about practically every social and political injustice in the world. Ambitious to an insane degree, and totally rewarding for whoever can swing with it.