Directed by:
M. Night ShyamalanScreenplay:
M. Night ShyamalanCinematography:
Roger DeakinsComposer:
James Newton HowardCast:
Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, Jayne Atkinson, Judy Greer (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
An isolated, tight-knit community lives in mortal fear of an oppressive evil inhabiting the forbidden forest just beyond their tiny village. So frightening that no one ventures into the woods ... until one villager dares to face the unknown. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
A splendid study into the life of a strange, closed community. Nothing special in acting terms and, from Adrien Brody, a perfect parody on acting performances. As usual, Shyamalan has everything firmly in his grasp in terms of directing, but the screenplay slipped through his fingers this time round. Because he was trying too hard to live up to viewer expectations and forcibly grafted on his traditional tension-rising-toward-a-climax element. If he had revealed this “shocking" event right at the beginning, the end result could have been much better. This is a great shame, because some moments suggest that The Village held great potential that unfortunately was exploited terribly little.
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The Village is a bad film, and a second viewing only deepened that feeling. The first time I was disappointed because I expected something great, the second time I just saw the overly crazy plot that practically begs to be parodied. That village is not a place you want to return to. The horror elements are excellent, but there are only about three minutes of them. That's not enough for such a long runtime and you have to prepare yourself for a long romantic drama with incredibly caricatured characters.
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I by no means claim that The Village is M. Night Shyamalan's best film, but I like it the most. Emotionally, it may resonate with me more than the acclaimed The Sixth Sense. In one of Švankmajer's films, the heroine says: "You have to close your eyes, or you won't see anything." In the case of The Village, it is not necessary to close your eyes but to embrace the director's game and let your imagination carry you away. The film doesn't function as a thriller or even as a horror, and anyone who thinks in terms of traditional genres will inevitably be disappointed. However, The Village, despite many contrary claims in the reviews, offers a range of very good acting performances, directorial ideas, and above all, atmosphere. Overall impression 90%.
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Inoculated by the general skepticism that engulfed the camp of the director's faithful, I avoided The Village at all costs. Today I know that it was a mistake, because it is the first Shyamalan film that really has something to it - that is, something more than just excellent technical design and points that get tired after the first revelation. The point of The Village is conceivable from the first moment, just as the Indian wizard's effort to build his film as a psychological study rather than a scary thriller is evident. An interesting game with hints, colors, characters, straightforwardness, sometimes a personalized narrator - all this gives The Village a touch of engagement and creates an atmosphere that is not scary, but rather tense and mysterious. Indeed, the closed society of the "righteous" seems strange, the individual characters are shifted, disturbed, unusual. Shyamalan does their interaction both brilliantly (the excellent Lucius /Ivy love scene) and badly (the unnecessarily starchy dialogues of the "elders"). Sometimes the script is poor when there are too many words where it would be better to keep quiet. Shyamalan's struggle for a new expression that would break away from traditional clichés is persistent and, thanks to the ending, a success. But it cannot be said that it is 100% convincing, but rather wobbly and unbalanced. But I must repeat again, there is a hopeful difference between Shyamalan's delicacies for the masses and The Village. I hope the director doesn't shy away from it.
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Even if my 5 stars were only for the incredibly gradual and at times literally refined atmosphere, technical perfection, and magical music (the "stupidity" of the story is overlooked; after all, I didn't find the story stupid at all, just reacting to some of the reviews here, hence the quotation marks), this film deserves them. I watch every other Shyamalan effort with anticipation and expectation of a greater or lesser dose of the mystery I found satisfying to say the least in The Village. It should also be noted that the film as such has a rather interesting idea and the moment the viewer gets the point and the pieces of the puzzle are connected, he/she sees the whole film from a completely different angle and perceives the individual characters differently as well (at least it felt that way to me).
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