Movie Review: The Village

The Village

Poor M. Night Shyamalan. With his first major release - The Sixth Sense - he hit a home run. The movie was brilliantly written, directed, and executed, and he received the honors he so justly deserved as a result. But his movies since then have suffered by comparison. Unbreakable wasn't a broad success though not really a bad movie; Signs did better at the box office, and was quite good, but was certainly not the movie The Sixth Sense was. And now Shyamalan offers The Village, another movie with the expected trademark twist to go with its suspense and bizarre story. Unfortunately, though The Village isn't a bad movie, it suffers by virtue of the high expectations Shyamalan fans have come to have.

The Village is an isolated late 19th century community in rural Pennsylvania. Surrounded on all sides by a thick forest, the residents are self sufficient and largely happy to be so. In this idyllic place, the village elders, headed up by Edward Walker (William Hurt), do everything from plan social events to mediate the mild disputes that occur from time to time. But their most important job is to ensure that the borders of their community are never broached by the nightmare creatures living in the wood around them. The villagers and the creatures enjoy an uneasy truce in which the carniverous monsters never cross into the clearing, and the villagers never under any circumstances enter the woods. Even so, the villagers remain vigilant and on edge, particularly as the sun goes down each evening.

Perhaps the only real problem the villagers have is that they're unable to manufacture certain medicines. As a result, children die of diseases that might otherwise have been treated. This fact inspires the deeply thoughtful Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) to ask the elders - one of whom is his mother, Alice (Sigourney Weaver) - for permission to enter the woods and go to a town to purchase medicine. The elders, of course, are horrified by the thought and certain that Lucius will not only be killed but will bring the wrath of the creatures down upon the entire village if he breaks the truce in such a way.

Meanwhile, as the elders and Lucius consider those serious matters, Walker's exuberant youngest daughter Kitty (Judy Greer) decides she's in love with Lucius and proceeds to announce that fact to him. The ever-shy Lucius, however, is deeply in love with Kitty's sister, the blind Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard). Ivy has long loved Lucius herself, but is kind to everyone in the village. As a result, she is also loved by the man who might be called the village idiot, Noah Percy (Adrien Brody). But the constant underlying fear in the village is brought to the forefront and makes romantic dalliances far less important when the creatures enter the village late one night and slash warning marks on every door. Lucius worries that he brought this terrifying thing to pass; the elders, meanwhile, must decide their own actions in light of recent events.

There's no disputing M. Night Shyamalan's directorial talents. The Village is brilliantly crafted in every sense. From the village he had built from the ground up in rural Pennsylvania to the edits, the film is not only flawless but fascinating. Joaquin Phoenix proves that, with body language and his eyes, he can create a complex and deeply emotional man of few words. William Hurt is perhaps a little over-dramatic, but Signourney Weaver and a supporting case including Brendan Gleeson, Celia Weston, and John Christopher are very good. Adrien Brody is a delight as the manic Noah Percy, and even his body language is a well considered addition to his character. The stand-out among a largely stand-out cast is Bryce Dallas Howard. The daughter of famed actor/director Ron Howard, she makes her film debut here and what a debut it is. Her depiction of a blind woman who sees better than many sighted people, and who has the courage of the bravest of men, is nothing short of brilliant.

The problem with The Village is the script and, in smaller measure, the story. Although it's good, it's not great (yes, I jumped a few times, and yes, I did find some sequences tense, but not often enough nor intensely enough). And, thanks (or damnation) to The Sixth Sense, we want more from M. Night Shyamalan. The good news is that he's clearly capable of it - and so, with his next film, we can still hope he'll surpass his first.

POLITICAL NOTES: There's been some talk that The Village and the woods might be allegories for an isolationist policy by an America surrounded by perceived enemies. I suppose if you want to skew things that way, you can; after all, virtually everything can be related to politics in some way if you try hard enough. But I saw the political implications on a much narrower scale, and that has to do with a group of elders who really and truly only have the best interests of the village at heart, but who don't always make the right choices despite those motivations. Imagine how much less right such choices would be if the elders didn't have pure motives and were, instead, attracted by the power so many politicians find so alluring!

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Village is rated PG-13 for "scenes of violence and frightening situations." It is, indeed, quite intense and I can virtually guarantee that some scenes will result in nightmares for little ones as well as for more sensitive older kids. In general, though, those age 12 or so and up should be fine.