Rating: 
Summary: After watching it a couple of times....I like it!!
Review: This was a movie that honestly had to grow on me. I actually bought the movie out of sheer curiosity and when I finally saw it, after being traumatized by the end, I seriously wanted to take it back to the store. Fortunately, they didn't allow that. I'm so glad I watched it again. This movie is brilliant and Bjork's performance is wonderful. Although some parts were flat out creepy, I found the movie to be very good. The director did a brilliant job.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you say "Phenomenal"?
Review: Bjork has to be one of the most gifted performers i've ever seen. She has an incredible mind, voice and talent. This movie is not just a movie. This is art in it's most purest, most passionate forms. (Just the thought of Bjork let loose with a musical should give you an idea of what you're in for)The only thing i can compare it to is Requiem for a Dream; it provokes some of the most intense emotional reactions that a movie can, even more graphic and horribly beautiful than the art behind Schindler's List. Although it starts out a little slow, it builds you up just the right way, and the music is amazing, the way the music-video-like choreopgraphy just flows and makes the film all the more beautiful. It's definitely not for the faint of heart or for the simple mind. If you truly enjoy seeing a movie that is artistic, deep, intense, scary, beautiful, and so full of emotion, then this is for you. Don't pass it up. Every Bjork fan will appreciate it for sure.
Rating:
Summary: la la love you
Review: One aspect that I feel has been completely misinterpreted in some of the other reviews, is the importance of the musical scenes interspersed throughout the film. These scenes are my favorites of the movie. Bjork composed the music especially for this movie and their placement within the story is critical. The first musical number in the factory is whimsical and innovative. The chaotic mood of this song is slightly reminiscent of the sugarcubes, and in my opinion, fabulous. However, later, the musical numbers become darker and tormented, paralleling Selma's psycholigical distress. The cinematography throughout the musical numbers is amazing-the vibrant colors, the camera angles- and combined with bjork's passionate and completely unihibited emotion these scenes stand out as high moments of the film.
Rating:
Summary: More fuel to the fire
Review: I hesitate to write a review of something with 210 previous opinions, but it seems fair, since this is a movie you obviously love or hate, and we're essentially voting here. So, I'll punch up five stars, because it's absolutely a stunning experience, regardless how you feel about it (I find it difficult to enjoy, as much as I admire the work). Actually, Roger Ebert said it well in his review of Peter Greenaway's "Prospero's Books"; "It stands above criticism". This movie is also so novel and daring that critical analysis fails. It's OK to hate it, but you must see it.
Rating:
Summary: Hail Queen Bjork
Review: This movie is amazing!! Much more important than Evita, more passionate than Moulin Rouge and much more entertaining than Chicago...this movie does the impossible: make a movie musical important. Bjork deserved an academy award nomination (at least) for her devastating portrayal of a desperate mother going blind. Yes, the movie is a tad melodramatic but isn't that the reason why we go to movies in the first place?I really enjoyed this movie because the songs are evenly spaced between each one and - more importantly - they support the plot. They do not feel "forced" onto the storyline; they arrive perfectly at the appropriate time. Finally, Bjork delivers her most beautiful and important song: "I've seen it all." I've heard this song so many times and evertime I listen to it, it's like the first time I heard. It swells into an operatic crescendo with gut-wrenching lyrics and a haunting melody. Madonna or any of the teen-pop divas have nothing on Bjork...(no wonder Madonna requested Bjork's Bedtime Story on her '94 album).
Thank God for Bjork
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely disappointing
Review: I generally like bizarre, off the wall movies. I am also somewhat of a Björk fan. Unfortunately, combine the two together and you get an awful trainwreck of a movie. The different elements of the movie do not mesh well together. The singing and dancing segments feel like they were pasted in haphazardly, and they are sadly uninspired. Combine that with a most attrociously tragic and implausible plot, and you have disaster.
Rating:
Summary: unwatchable
Review: but somehow i managed to wake up for the dancing numbers, which were different and interesting ... and Bjork does a lovely job ... but the movie is tedious, empty, devoid of reality at so many levels, a void that is replaced by nothing, an emptiness that is shattered by trite, repetitive dialog and repetitive points. Oh, please, fast forward through the movie and watch the songs, because the movie itself will make you yawn so hard you'll injure your jaw ...
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing.
Review: Bjork's gut-wrenching performance puts her far ahead of *anyone* I've seen come out of Hollywood. She lived, breathed, and died Selma. The songs pulled from the world around her make me stop and hear music now in the clatter of a truck or the scuffling of a shoe. The simplicity of the dance, the real voices in the songs, the jolt of the camera make this all too real, very moving, and hauntingly memorable. If you can handle the emotion - see it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird, weirder, weirdest
Review: This movie is another example of what I think of as a farce: a filmmaker, desperate to make something 'different', laughing up his sleeve at those who rave about it. The plot was a real stretch....many of the issues presented would never have happened, even in 1964, when the movie took place. This was one of the most depressing and ludicrous exercises in filmmaking that I have ever seen. Frankly, I cannot believe that I watched it until the end! I could not believe that the cast broke into song and dance when they did.....even on Death Row!!!! Even if these were fantasies to allow Selma to cope, they were so out of place! The other annoying aspect was the shakiness of the hand-held (I assume) cameras which cut off the top of actors' heads and were sometimes out of focus,among other things. Bjork was the one shining light in this film. She did an excellent job as the naive,nearly blind Selma, desperate to keep her son from the same fate.
Rating:
Summary: DANCER IN THE DARK
Review: Wonderful scored with music composed by Bjork, and starring Bjork (Gudmundsdottir) It's so disheartening this film has receive such dismal critiquing from certain people. As it starts out it looks like a home movie. Selma a Czech immigrant is trying out for the role of Maria in a amateur production of "The Sound of Music", a man makes a comment "she sings funny" but nevertheless Selma gets the part. Selma lives in a trailer that's located in the back of a police officer's home, Bill (played by David Morse)
She lives there with her young son, Gene. And works long hours at a factory. But her employer is breathing down her back, about how she sometimes drifts off and people can tell she can't see too well. He's worried she might have an accident and get hurt on the job. Luckily she has her friend Kathy, (Catherine Deneuve) who Selma calls Cvalda. Cvalda is her best friend and tries to help her. When Selma finds life around her too overwhelming, she imagines she's in a musical.
Included in these musical sequences are all her friends and it's always happy. One of her few joys was to see musicals in her home country of Czechoslovakia, her favorite entertainer was Olrich Novy, a tap dancer. (A real person, who was like the Czech Fred Astaire) Another friend is Jeff (played by Peter Stormare) he has a crush on her, she has to keep telling him she doesn't want a boyfriend, but he still comes to offer her rides home. He can tell she's losing her sight too, but she denys it. Selma has been saving a good part of her earnings and she's even taken a part time job, putting bobby pins on display cards, and working double shifts at the factory. Her secret is she has a disease which will ultimately make her blind, she's afraid Gene will get the same affliction. It's too late for her but he can have an operation, but it's expensive which is why she's saving up. Meanwhile Bill confides to her that his wife is too spendthrift, he's in debt and doesn't know what to do, he tells Selma he wants to commit suicide. Selma talks him out of it She decides to trust him and confide her secret to him. And tells him she's almost saved enough for the operation on Gene. The next day he comes to her trailer and askes for a loan, she reminds him of the operation and he apologizes, but the next day he comes to her again telling her he's decided to tell his wife the true state of their finances and try to make amends. He pretends to go, but actually hides to watch Selma, to find out where her money is. Selma can't see he's still there and goes to put money in the hiding place. The next day she finds it missing. And goes to Bill for answers. Bill is so desperate he pulls a gun on Selma. And threatens to call the cops and accuse her of trying to steal HIS money. Well, there's a scuffle with the gun, Bill is injured and begs Selma to finish him off, she does.... The cops are then summoned, but Selma leaves the scene to go to rehearsal, where they come to arrest her, sparking off another musical scene as they carry her out the door into a waiting squad car.... I can tell from reading some of the previous reviews statements and elsewhere, that this film must of went over quite a few heads. And there are actually some that like to bash it, sad.. Although you may not agree with it's underlying message, regarding capital punishment, the last quote of the film is "They say it's the last song, they don't know us, you see it's only the last song if we let it be"
It's still a magnificent picture and a wonderful story. Bjork delivers a remarkable, tender and poignant performance. And her award at the Cannes film festival for best actress is justly deserved. She embodies Selma, she moved me to tears, it was depressing but not a COMPLETE abysmal downer. Bjork is truly amazing. I LOVE the wonderfully choreographed dancing and singing...although Peter Stormare isn't that too great of a singer (he's a great actor though) and thankfully his singing is few. The music is beautiful, I know some found it odd, but I guess those were people with tin ears. The opening sequence is especially gorgeous, called "New World" on the soundtrack. "Scatterheart" is also a wonderful song, it's better on the soundtrack than in the movie because the lyrics are different, in the movie the lyrics are changed to fit the situation.
The camera was also kind of shaky, but it still good. I've seen it probably 31/2 times, I couldn't make it through the last time, the last segment of it is just too excrutiatingly sad. As a small side note: A previous reviewer said Bjork should stick to what she knows:music and picking fights.
Since when has she picked a fight? The only fight she's been in is when she attacked that overzealous reporter at the Bangkok airport..but she had good reason, the woman was harassing Bjork's son (who was nine) After Bjork had told her that all her quesions would be answered at a press conference, the lady gave a snide remark and turned to Bjork's son, questioning him! Her mothers instinct kicked in. Besides she called her up and personally apologized.
(sorry about that sidetrack, it was just bugging me)
He was right about one thing though, she does know music.
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