This film isn't for everyone. It is the second dogma film that I have seen, and if this is any indication of the quality of this movement then forget Hollywood affectations, this is where the action is. There are some wonderful moments in this film. Time seems to stop, and exists only within the film. These moments are existential moments that lead us closer to recesses of our collective humanity and inhumanity in real time than anything else I have ever seen on screen.These kind of films to me reveal the illusion (it happens so rarely) that the big, fat, overweight, overwrought, pompous emperor that goes by the name of "Hollywood" (who will have a heart attack in a few years or more likely give the culture one) really is naked, with mammon and everybody else in line grovelling at his feet.Pull off your veil (if you can), turn off your TV (very difficult to do) exit Plato's cave, and start watching Dogma films if you can. When you come back out of the light, everyone will call you crazy, of course, and most everyone else will agree, that is, if they are not totally enraged by the luminance and the light, then watch out! Or completely baffled by it, as a lot of people are. Just read some of these reviews.This is real drama! Dogma is truly where the value is.

I was speechless after seeing this movie. I started watching it late on a weekday, knowing I would have to get up the next day but couldn't tear myself away! I had to know what would happen to the characters. The situation was starkly realized, and I could feel the slow dawning of awareness as the bus passengers see how futile their schedules and agendas are, survival quickly becomes the priority. I think to center criticism on the chances of getting lost like that and other plot details miss the point. The choice of "Lear" as a play to put on to distract from the terrible circumstances does not seem contrived, and this would not be the first movie to work the Shakespearean tragedy into its story, with, I thought an awful premonition of what was to come.

I was inspired to write this because the other review was so dismissive of the film. The set-up may be contrived, but I found Levring's film compelling, visually inventive, richly atmospheric, and often surprising. The relationships among the characters drew me in and the performances were gripping. All told, the film provides an inspiring example of the Dogma approach to filmmaking that ventures beyond the formulaic Hollywood mold. Props to Levring and the actors!

No, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. That honor still goes to a dreadful piece about Van Gogh materializing in present-day L.A. (Nothing I see will ever be as bad as that film.) But this is right up there in the Stinkeroo Hall of Fame.POSSIBLE SPOILEROK, we're not supposed to take the story literally? So it doesn't matter that they stand out in the desert sun learning lines, instead of taking all the necessary precautions to fight for survival? Fine. Except that the film doesn't work as some artistic metaphor on the human condition either. There is no consistent, logical relationship among the film characters themselves, or between each person and the part they're assigned to play. There's no there there.We may despise mindless action films, or predictably plotted suspense/fantasy films. But there is truly nothing worse than the person who hides an inability to create coherent themes and logical stories behind the aura of experimental art.