Movielogr
The Village (2004)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
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Overview
When a willful young man tries to venture beyond his sequestered Pennsylvania hamlet, his actions set off a chain of chilling incidents that will alter the community forever.
Rated PG-13 | Length 108 minutes
Actors
Bryce Dallas Howard | Joaquin Phoenix | Adrien Brody | William Hurt | Sigourney Weaver | Brendan Gleeson | Cherry Jones | Celia Weston | John Christopher Jones | Frank Collison | Jayne Atkinson | Judy Greer | Fran Kranz | Michael Pitt | Jesse Eisenberg | Charlie Hofheimer | Scott Sowers | Zack Wall | Pascale Renate Smith | Jordan Burt | Jane Lowe | Charlie McDermott | Robert Lenzi | Willem Zuur | Liz Stauber | Tim Moyer | Sydney Shapiro | Mia Rose Colona | Chloe Wieczkowski | Sydney Wieczkowski | M. Night Shyamalan | John Rusk | Joey Anaya | Kevin Foster
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07/30/2004 | Movie Screen | Film | Theater | 2 stars |
| (Average) 2 stars |
Viewing Notes
This review originally appeared on Mediasharx.com As of the last snapshot on March 26, 2005 it had received 1,163 views.
Stay Out of THE VILLAGE
Ever since THE SIXTH SENSE debuted, the name of director M. Night Shyamalan has been typically associated with quality and engaging filmmaking. While his past three films (SENSE, UNBREAKABLE, and SIGNS) are enjoyable, if a bit loopy, at times, there is no doubt that his latest, THE VILLAGE, is his weakest film yet.
THE VILLAGE centers around a small, quaint village in the Pennslyvania countryside sometime in the 19th century, judging by the inhabitants’ garb. Headed by Edward Walker (William Hurt) and his fellow Elders, the group who founded the town, the unnamed town is a blend of both older and younger people trying to survive in a clearing surrounded by the Covington forest. No one ever ventures into the forest because of Those We Do Not Speak Of, a group of creatures living there that the town has had a truce with for many years. The villagers are so deathly afraid of the creatures that they will not use The Bad Color (red), which supposedly attracts them; they even go so far as to bury plants in the village that have that color.
Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), son of Elder Alice Hunt (Sigourney Weaver), understands that isolation is killing their village slowly and proposes to the Elders that he be permitted to travel through the forest to the Other Towns to obtain medicines to help the ill, the feable and the wounded. Each time, his proposal is denied, because the Elders fear that his prescence in Covington forest would only bring the wrath of TWDNSO. Lucius, however, decides to take matters into his own hands one day while working on the town’s perimeter; he ventures about 50 yards into the forest and plucks a twig of berries of The Bad Color. That night, the wrath of TWDNSO is laid upon the village while the residents hide under their houses in fear.
In the midst of this constant fear, however, love blossoms among the younger residents of the town. Edward’s daughter Kitty picks a love and is married the next day. Soon after, Edward’s other blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Lucius confess their love for each other and they plan to be married as well. But, the unspeakable happens and Ivy must face her town’s fear to obtain medicines to save a life.
THE VILLAGE is not a bad film, to say the least, but it is not a good film either. All of The Shyamalan Standards are there: slow pacing, Pennslyvania, emotionally wounded characters (en masse this time), a Shyamalan cameo and The Plot Twist. The Shyamalan Standards usually make for a great film, but in THE VILLAGE, they simply leave you bored.
The supposed emotionally wounded characters which inhabit this town are fairly lifeless, with the Hunt family being the only exception. Instead of playing Lucius as a troubled man, Joaquin Phoenix plays the character as wooden and lifeless. The only time Lucius comes to life as a character and you truly enjoy the character is during his longest bit of speech with Ivy. While William Hurt is solid as Edward, it’s Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy that truly takes over THE VILLAGE; her energy jumps off the screen when she is at the center. Unfortunately, Howard cannot save the film.
THE VILLAGE’s plot is so slow and Shyamalan enforces such a low simmer that the story becomes tedious at times. And, when the film arrives at The Plot Twist (which you can see coming half way into the movie), it’s anticlimactic at best. With the town living in constant fear of the surrounding forest (among other not-so-subtle points), Shyamalan tries to infuse the film’s themes with cultural relevance, but it’s a double-edged sword. If I hadn’t known going in that this was Shyamalan’s Giant Political Metaphor, I probably would have been even less interested while watching, like most of the audience around me. Fortunately for me, knowing what I knew beforehand, picking out Shyamalan’s various political statements made the film a tad more interesting.
As a movie critic, I’m probably in the minority (as I tire of political diatribe in films easily), but the emotionally lifeless characters as a whole, the anticlimactic plot twist and the often-obtuse dialogue leave THE VILLAGE as a solid movie, given this summer’s fare so far, but weak for M. Night Shyamalan.
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