The Village came as quite a shock to me. M. Night Shyamalan brought us that one superb twist in The Sixth Sense...but then he followed up with the slow, masturbatory Unbreakable and the "all build-up and no pay-off" of Signs. He's crazy twist guy, and he did little to expand upon that...ending both of these follow-ups with equally huge twists to much (much) lesser effect than in his debut. This is fine in an episode of The Twilight Zone, but it's a lot more frustrating when a two hour feature sets up a massive twist and doesn't deliver. However, The Village does it differently. Here he finally puts in the effort to expand upon the shock-value of the single major twist and, in the process, delivers his most enjoyable movie yet.
The basic plot of The Village involves a small community isolated from the rest of the world and the mysterious and deadly creatures inhabiting the nearby woods. The villagers refuse to venture beyond their community, even for immediate medicinal needs, for fear of encountering said creatures when crossing these woods. These creatures, in the past, have generally remained to themselves so long as the villagers did not disturb them; however, things are changing and the village suddenly finds itself at odds with what to do about the situation. And then there's a love story and stuff.
The twist isn't quite as perfect as the one in The Sixth Sense, but then again, The Sixth Sense feels like a much simpler movie in comparison. The Sixth Sense went through all the motions of a basic ghost story, and then, right at the end, threw such a major curveball about one of the characters that the rest of the plot seemed almost entirely irrelevant in comparison. It was probably the greatest twist in cinematic history, but it's hard to say that the movie really played fair. After all, who really cared the second time around?
The Village plays fair. It gives the audience ample time to speculate about its secrets, and then, with perfect timing and pacing, delightfully proceeds in unravelling them. It begins this process long before the movie's conclusion (thankfully avoiding a "bombshell" ending,) and nicely allows the revelations themselves to build the rest of the story. It slowly puts all the puzzle together in its final act, while keeping the tone increasingly thrilling. It's expertly designed movie magic.
The Village is not a flawless picture. It has the most wooden dialogue you're likely ever to see outside of a Dead Teenager movie, and the psychology of many of the characters is extremely questionable. But it's not nearly enough to sink the picture as M. Night Shyalaman, in addition to proving himself a crafty writer, proves himself a remarkably skillful, stylish director. Even if the twist had been as disappointing as I was expecting, I might've still recommended this sheerly on directorial achievement.
It's all shot very elegantly (director's cameo aside), and the final product is actually rather beautiful. Perhaps the movie's greatest strength is its ability to hold its eerie atmosphere and remain enthralling even while very little of the main plot involving the creatures is going on. Shyamalan makes it very easy to go with the movie, wherever it wants to take you...and, if you're willing to go with it, The Village turns out to be one hell of a ride.
Most of all, The Village is worth seeing becuase it's such a weird movie. It is an entirely unique, one-of-a-kind experience. It is extremely rare when you can really say that about a summer blockbuster, and it's even rarer when such a summer blockbuster actually works. But The Village delivers. And it's probably the best $7.50 you can spend at the movies this summer. |
