Controversy doesn’t plague the film industry like it once did. In this day and age, films are filled with over-the-top sex and torturous violence, making it difficult to rattle the audience’s desensitized nerves. So when I first heard word of “Antichrist” and it’s scenes of graphic sexual violence, I was quite intrigued.

The film begins with a couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) having sex. As they move from the shower to the bedroom, their young son makes his way out of his crib and out of an open window, crashing to his death on the snowy pavement below.

Stricken with grief, the mother spends a month in the hospital before being released into the care of her therapist husband. He decides to treat her through her grieving process and uses exposure therapy after learning that her worst fear is a cabin in the woods referred to as “Eden.”

While there, he helps her progress through her trying times until he stumbles across her thesis research on gynocide and proposes to her that she has formed the idea that women are the source of evil. From here, chaos ensues — or reigns, as a computer generated fox would say.

Lars von Trier has always been known as a different and possibly controversial director, so adding “Antichrist” to his filmography is no real surprise. The problem lies in his approach, though.

The film is poorly structured and intensely slow. The only way he manages to keep his audience interested is by throwing in shock value. For instance, von Trier attempts to capture your immediate attention by showing an unnecessary close up of his penis thrusting into her vagina. As the film drags on and you begin to slouch in your seat, a fox is shown eating his own entrails and speaks in a demonic tone. Then as the end nears and your patience is running thin, the truly gruesome genital torture is thrown in your face.

While it’s hard to like her due to the unforgivable pain she inflicts, Charlotte Gainsbourg is the shining light of the film. She puts in an emotional and unforgettable performance that could gain the attention of the Academy. While Dafoe does a fine job himself as the helping husband, Gainsbourg is the obvious star.

What we have here is a case of what could have been. The story behind “Antichrist” is a very personal and human ordeal that mixes in psychotic thriller elements. Sadly, there isn’t enough there to create a captivating film, and instead it is filled with fluff and cheap tricks that don’t do it justice.