village

The Village

2004, Touchstone. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Brendan Gleeson.
Rated PG-13 for much suspense and menace, a scene of bloody violence.

Grade: C

Review by Anthony

      M. Night Shyamalan is renowned for delivering films that deal with the supernatural and the scary. His most well-known and by far his best movie was the ghost story masterpiece The Sixth Sense. More recently, he has also given us the alien movie Signs, an inferior but still enjoyable film that also had a strong spiritual theme (in between these two movies Shyamalan also released Unbreakable, which I have not yet seen and consequently cannot comment on). Now M. Night
Shyamalan has given us The Village, a film with an intriguing premise but that falls short of his previous works.
       The story is about an Amish-like community of people who have escaped the modern day world to live a simple, peaceful life. Their village is completely surrounded by woods inhabited by mysterious beasts. These beasts have never entered the village...until now, of course.
       The plot is intriguing, and the movie does have its moments of suspense. Also, Adrien Brody (The Pianist) especially gives a fine performance as a mentally-challenged character. Unfortunately, it's all in vain. The movie is undermined time and time again by contrived plot points and characters that make inexplicable decisions. The result is unconvincing at best and blatantly rediculous at worst.
It's a shame because the movie had the potential to be quite good had Shyamalan not taken numerous missteps.
        Renowned for his famous clever twist at the end of The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan has put another one in The Village. Or he at least put in something that aspires towards a clever twist but instead emerges as just another plot point that seems too contrived.
       It is such a disappointment to see the mastermind behind The Sixth Sense and even Signs produce such a lackluster movie. Shyamalan has proven in the past that he is capable of getting things right. I can only hope that his next film gets it right, or I'll have serious reservations as to the man's capabilities.