The Village

Some spoilers. Ending is not revealed, but is hinted at.
The only other M. Night Shyamalan film I have seen is undoubtedly his best - the Bruce Willis lead gripping ghost story, 'The Sixth Sense'. I loved it, and since I already knew the much-discussed final twist, I was able to appreciate the clever intricacies of the misleading plot as well as Haley Joel Osment's excellent breakout performance. But going into M. Night's latest effort, The Village, mostly bad reviews and bad word of mouth had me feeling deeply cynical, and at best I was hoping for some decent scares and a few good laughs at the expense of the integrity of the 'twist' ending. But that wasn't what I got. To my upmost astonishment, I very much enjoyed The Village, and I especially found myself caring for the characters and even emotionally affected by their plight at some points.

Mostly this is down to the suprisingly accomplished performances from the leading couple, the always watchable Joaquin Phoenix and wonderful newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, and satisfying supporting performances from Adrien Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver. Many (bad) reviews of the film admired Brody because he seemed to be the only one having any fun, but in fact the only points where he seems to be enjoying the proceedings are when everyone else is relatively happy - and once things become bleak for all other characters, they become equally bleak for him - pretty much from the point where he stabs Phoenix's character twice in the stomach, in a scene that is scarier and more shocking than any involving the 'creatures' that sorround the village.

The creatures themselves look unbelievably fake and pathetic, (though the reason for this becomes apparent later in the film) but every other detail of art direction and costumes is perfect, and a joy to gaze at. The strong yellows and reds stand out well among the otherwise boring colours, as was intended, and sometimes the film is quite beautiful, if just for a few frames.



At the beginning of the film, you're supposed to believe that the inhabitants of the unnamed village are happy people - but it's a hard sell, even with terrible child actors splashing each-other with water and young women dancing as they clean their porch. You know what's coming, and therefore you refuse to believe anything that is happening. This is a curse M. Night will have a lot of trouble lifting off his shoulders in the future - no matter how much he wants the emotional and technical factors of his films to be admired before he gets into full swing, he may have trouble convincing the audience that his characters are even real people. In fact, I realised as I watching The Village that I was thinking too much about how things were going to turn out and was only half watching the film, something others should try and avoid completely, instead of realising it some way through.

Though the the final resolution of the film is far a more realistic scenario than the original premise, this is completely irrevelant, and the film's many twist do start to become ridiculous, if not a little comical. But they always make sense, and though at first they seem obvious, soon you'll be taken by suprise at how much more complicated the ending is, even if its not particularly original.

***1/2 out of 5.