THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, “Crucified in Cannes, back for Christmas” runs the marketing slogan for Lars von Trier’s latest, and would that this rage- stoking but oddly empty provocation was half that witty. A brilliant filmmaker whose best films use extreme bad manners to abrasive effect, the Dane settles merely for piled- on ugliness in this grisly serial killer portrait which lacks an intellectual payoff. 14 December