Lars von Trier attempts to make a modern day musical and, against all theodds, he succeeds. This is due, in no small part, to the charismaticpresence of the Icelandic songstress Bjork, who plays Selma, an immigrantsingle mother who likes nothing better than to daydream about musicals andmaking songs from the sounds all around her.

For the love of her son, she works day and night in a factory assemblingpackets of needles because she wants to give her son an operation to savehim from the hereditary condition that is slowly making her blind. Motherand son live together in a trailer in the garden of Bill, the local policeofficer, played with fantastic panache by David Morse. He is a fineupstanding member of the community, who halfway through the film carriesout an evil deed and, from that point, events unfold on an inevitable pathto tragedy. At the end, I doubt there was a dry eye in the cinema. Thedriving narrative holds everything together well and there is a whole rangeof delicately-weighted support performances including Catherine Deneuve asKathy, Selma's only true friend.

Although I would argue the end is about 20 minutes late in coming, the filmstill works, as a whole. The musical numbers can jar a little, but they'rean interesting experiment. It's encouraging to see an inventivewriter/director like Lars von Trier continuing to innovate as his careermoves forward.