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The Village
Everybody always talks about M Night Shyamalan's surprise endings. But the shocker here is the opening. What on earth is this hip, contemporary director doing making a period film? Set among some fearsome woods, The Village is entirely cut off from the rest of the world - which makes it hard to say exactly what period we're supposed to be in. But there's no electricity, no plumbing except the well, and the Villagers wear felt capes and tunics. It's somewhere between The Crucible and Little Red Riding Hood. 
The Village people are a rum lot. They include Joaquin Phoenix as Lucias, whose mother, Sigourney Weaver, is one of the council of elders, and who seems to have a thing for the leader, Edward, played with characteristic solemnity by William Hurt. (Anyone remember The Janitor, 20 years ago now?) Quasi-incestuously, Lucias fancies Edward's blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard, whose real-life dad is director Ron Howard). His main rival is Adrien Brody's Noah, and he's nutty as a fruit bat, so things are looking good for Lucias. The first half of The Village is intriguing, to put it mildly. As The Sixth Sense showed and Signs confirmed, Shyamalan is a master at building atmosphere, and here he lays it on with the proverbial trowel. When we learn what manner of beasts is keeping the community fenced in, the movie is only a whisper away from camp. But there's a kind of delirious riskyness to the conceit which is quite invigorating - you can feel how desperately Shyamalan wants to believe in monsters, which helps to go along with it. The love story is also well observed, and touchingly played by Howard and Phoenix. And there's a brilliantly directed twist which I wouldn't dream of giving away. But mind, this is all in the first half of the movie. 
Critics were pretty sniffy about The Village when it came out in cinemas. Although I think the critics were harsh, and there are some pretty scary sequences, I would have to agree that the second half is a bit of a let down, especially the ending. For a start, it's a twist you can guess, which is disappointing. And you've probably seen it before, which is disastrous. It's also, I think, the wrong ending. Shyamalan clearly means the film to be taken as an allegory for isolationist Fortress America. For most of the movie his sympathies are clearly with the young people who kick against that deeply conservative thinking, and who bravely risk everything to confront superstition and lies. Without giving anything away, I believe the ending betrays those characters' courage and identifies the wrong villain. It's a failure of nerve on Shyamalan's part, and that may be what really cost him at the box office. The DVD, which includes a reasonably interesting 'making of' documentary, doesn't address any of these issues, which is a shame. The Village is a better movie than it was given credit for. But I had hoped there might have been an alternate ending hidden away somewhere in those deleted scenes. Tom Charity 
More information about The Village » Critics' Reviews
Radio Times
M Night Shyamalan's reputation has been built on his way with a twist ending, and this unlikely cross between Lost Horizon and Alien continues the tradition set by The Sixth Sense and Signs. Set in an unspecified time and place, this beautifully photographed tale concerns an isolated rural community that seems idyllic — except for the mysterious creatures that inhabit the surrounding woods. The villagers respect the territory of these rarely seen beings, but the uneasy truce is challenged when Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) steps across the boundary line. Shyamalan uses just about every trick in the book to create a sense of unease — spooky woods, creepy music and things that literally go bump in the night — and his cast performs admirably, particularly newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of director Ron Howard). However, in trying to top his previous films, Shyamalan piles on the twists until the story buckles — this time, perhaps, less would have been more. Halliwell's Film Guide Risible, illogical horror movie that depends for its effect on fooling its audience, when most will be way ahead of the director in working out his clumsy contrivances. News Of The World Brilliant! Intelligent And Provocative. Members' ReviewsReviews Voted Most HelpfulMost Recent Reviews |