Review of The Village (2004) by Ian M — 20 Mar 2014

Dumb, nonsensical and idiotic, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" is a laughable disaster. It's marketed as a creepy Horror film yet where is the horror when only 2 or 3 scenes manage to terrify you.

Here's a film that doesn't exactly know what it wants to be: it goes from being a creepy horror film to a laughable comedy to the most deadly solemn drama. Why does it exist? No idea. The dialogue is so laughable it seems as if a 3rd grader wrote it, the director is messy and all over the place, and the film has one of the most disappointing twist endings in recent memory.

I enjoy movies that are unpredictable and keep you guessing throughout, but in the case of "The Village" all you want to do after witnessing it's plot twist is bang your head against the wall.

What a waste of money! You feel as if you've been cheated, let down and given no reason to watch the film in the first place. Besides, the acting is so dull it almost seems as if the actors themselves have been forced to appear in the movie.

Not one actor shows the least bit excitement. Joaquin Phoenix is utterly wasted in a role that challenges him to stare into empty space with nearly no dialogue, Bryce Dallas Howard is so unconvincing as a blind women you don't even find out that she's disabled until halfway through the film and the rest of the cast simply there for the paycheck.

The only actor that truly comes across as memorable is Adrien Brody in the role of a strange and creepy mentally ill psychopath. The film is also, on the positive side, shot beautifully by Roger Deakins and scored wonderfully with a great sense of mood.

If there's one thing Shyamalan does know, it's how to create a suspenseful atmosphere. It makes you bite your nails in a few scenes but is not nearly enough to make up for a plot twist that makes the whole film seem like a garbage bin.