The Village

The Village is the latest movie from suspense film director M Night Shyamalan about a small village in the late 1800s and the beasts that prey around its borders. The film features one of Shyamalan’s patented twist endings as well as the grand emergence of a new star, this time the new talent is Bryce Dallas Howard. Overall I would rank this film as one of Shyamalan’s better, not as good as The Sixth Sense, which still remains his watershed film, but on par with the very good Signs and better than the bleak Unbreakable.

I must say personally, I haven’t been shocked by one of Shyamalan’s endings since The Sixth Sense. Personally I go into the movie thinking ‘What is the coolest ending I can think of?’ and that is generally the ending to the film. Maybe he and I think on the same wavelength. Not that it bothers me, I don’t expect to be surprised and I think that Shyamalan suffers from unrealistic expectations from his films. In fact, to have the best ending that I can imagine is pretty good. I mean how often do you go into a movie hoping for the best and actually getting it instead of the cheesy obvious ending that most films contain? Shyamalan always offers us an impressive ride in his films. In film it is the whole film that counts, not what happens in the last 10 minutes.

It is the late 1800s and a small isolated village ringed by woods is mourning the passing of a child. This is the opening of the film and we meet another small group, though perhaps not as small as Shyamalan’s last intimate film Signs. The hero of the story seems to be Lucius Hunt played beautifully by Joaquin Phoenix. He has grown into a magnificent actor, as in Gladiator and Signs, he is able to smolder and emote while saying hardly anything. Here he is a quiet and reserved man who is honest, and kind, works hard, and loves Ivy the blind daughter of one of the town leaders. Ivy is played by newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of actor/director Ron Howard in her first major film role. Shyamalan has a knack for recognizing talented actors, he raised Haley Joel Osment out of obscurity and he is set to do that again for Howard. She is a kind girl and there is a love triangle between her and Lucius and the village idiot Noah. The village idiot is played by Adrien Brody as a harmless man-child who likes Ivy and plays seemingly harmlessly with the children of the village. One of my favorite comments promoting this film was Adrien Brody kidding that this is not the sexy leading man role he was looking for. After his Academy Award winning role in The Pianist I can’t imagine Brody being offered anything as bland as the heroic and sexy leading man.

What is special is not the people of the village but its situation. It is within woods where walk ‘Those we do not name’ creatures that can skin small animals and kill the unwary. The rules of the village are simple, do not wear red as it attracts them, and do not go into the wood for that is where they live. Of course these rules are tested by the young, they like to stand on a rock near the woods to see how long they can stay there before the boy gets frightened and runs away. But in general the people are sheltered and they live an idyllic life in their small village.

The film is extremely atmospheric, as are most of Shyamalan’s movies. Unlike most of the other films this one occurs mostly outdoors either in a picture perfect clear sunny day that belies the danger all around. Or in darkness, only torches lighting the way as glimpses of an unspeakable horror surprise the hero. There are druidic cloaks for all of the people, bright yellow, the calm color to quell the beasts, and red, the color of warning that draws the beast in. Only with the use of a beautifully done score by James Newton Howard could you make the act of walking into a well lit wood that scary.

Part way through the movie the film takes a different turn as it abandons Lucius as the main hero and focuses instead on Ivy. I know from interviews that Shyamalan found this change in narrative perspective during the film as Howard proved herself to be a capable actress, but the change seems impulsive and lacks cohesiveness. This also affects the pacing of the film which will probably cause restless moments both at the beginning of the film and near the end. Shyamalan likes to build his suspenseful movies from a series of small and innocuous scenes. The small scenes, of a person in the woods may be quiet, but they are certainly disquieting in a way that only Shyamalan can do. Then he likes to pull the rug out from under the audience by giving the scenes an entirely different perspective through a twist at the end that requires the audience to go back and reevaluate every action, motivation, and scene in the film.

I won’t give away the ending, but let us say that as Shyamalan was able to stage a small family story about love and redemption during an alien invasion here he stages a love story under equally unexpected circumstances. The film is at times plodding, heart wrenching, scary, and infuriating but one thing that the film delivers is solid entertainment.