Review of The Village (2004) by Alasdair B — 26 Dec 2014

It's no secret his films have become worse and worse over the years. Admittedly, I haven't seen The Sixth Sense or Signs, but trust me, I want to. I don't have to see his films to know he started out amazing and now is one of the worst directors ever. The advertisement for "The Village'' led one to believe it was going to be a horror film. Personally, I didn't watch the trailer, but I did see the poster. The cover looks like it's a horror movie. Is it a horror film? No, not really. It's directed by M. Night Shyamalan and stars Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Brendan Gleeson, Jesse Eisenberg, William Hurt, and Adrien Brody.

"The Village'' is about a community of people who live in the wilderness with their families. On the borders of they're land stands the forbidden forest where the "ones they mustn't speak of'' dwell. A young man named Lucius (Phoenix), desires to venture through the forest to go to the villages. Meanwhile, he and Ivy (Howard), share romantic moments together. The creatures in the forest begin to haunt the town after youngsters go across the border.

This film is chalk full of talent. There are so many fantastic actors and actresses in this. Bryce Dallas Howard, arguably the best part of the film, gives a great performance. Joaquin Phoenix is pretty solid in this, however I feel he was miscast. I'm not sure why he's in this. He gives all this dramatic dialogue about nothing dramatic. He points at a box ominously with powerful emotion. Then you find out what's in the box and it kills it. William Hurt also gives a solid performance. In the end, the acting in the film is quite good, but that doesn't save it. The cinematography in this film is amazing. It's shot by Rodger Deakins, my absolute favorite DP. The musical score is done by the great James Newton-Howard. It's a beautiful score. The sets are pretty impressive, and the costumes are nice.

The characters in this film are very flat and poorly written. They don't make any sense. I couldn't understand what their motives where or really get a sense of who they are. The dialogue in this movie is sometimes reasonable, but allot of the time it's really nonsensical. I was constantly asking myself, what? The film sets up a few noticeable plot points that are meant to be unveiled towards the end that utterly fail. That being said, the first hour of this film is really suspenseful. Despite the fact that the plot and characters are confusing, it's still suspenseful. I didn't love it, but I was going along with it. Then the big signature twist. The twist in this film is so underwhelming and stupid I got frustrated. It was so poorly written and executed. You wait all this time waiting for the twist and it's just so dull. Also, it doesn't really make logical sense. I never understood the message of this film. What was I supposed to take away from it? Was the message the world is so terrible so let's all go off and become Amish?

"The Village'' starts out promising and in the end fails to deliver. Despite it's many flaws, the film has great performances, a great score, and beautiful cinematography. It also has moments of over the top acting, bad dialogue, confusing plot points, convoluted characters, and a terrible twist ending. Seriously, this started out really interesting. Shyamalan has proven once again, he isn't a good filmmaker anymore. He fails to give us good characters and stories, and instead pours all of his efforts into doing plot twists, despite how ridiculous they may be.