A brilliant thriller that falls apart at the two-thirds mark...

Rating: 6/10 (10 February 2006)

M. Night Shyamalan's third major picture is a tough film to review. The acting is great, the visuals get a thumbs up, and it's guided to its final destination by a deft filmmaker with a knack for creating suspense. Mel Gibson stars as former reverend Graham Hess, who has given up the faith after a freak accident takes his wife (ironic, as Gibson's next major film would be The Passion). Living on the family farm with his brother Merrill (the always excellent Joaquin Phoenix), they're scraping by and raising Graham's kids (Rory Culkin, the most talented of the Culkin clan, and Abigail Breslin). Unlike Harvery Keitel's character in From Dusk Till Dawn ("Do you still believe in God, Daddy?" "Yes. I'm just not happy with him.") however, Gibson's Hess has given up the faith completely. "There's no one watching over us," he tells Merrill.
Soon, crop circles are showing up in his cornfields. His animals are going haywire. We know what's coming next, but what works about the film is the sense of claustrophobia the setting creates. A massive invasion is being launched across the globe, and not once do we ever leave the perspective of the Hesses, in their small farmhouse entrenched by cornstalks. Shyamalan understands that an audiences imagination will always scare them more than anything concrete, and teases us with shadowy figures. It works. The first half of the film is beautifully suspenseful. The first straight on shot of an alien is pure goosebumps.
And then things kind of fall apart. Actually seeing the aliens, they look a lot less intimidating than we previously imagined. The level of tension drops. It's not gone, but it's nowhere near intense. Then Shyamalan goes for one of his patented switch-endings, which worked so well The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Here, not so much. In a way, it's good storytelling in that the movie begins planting the seeds of its ending from the very beginning. In the end, the pieces are all in the rearview mirror and it is exciting to watch it come to fruition. The problem is a logistic one; it makes no sense. For aliens with such a weakness to even attempt an invasion of Earth seems downright hilarious. Still, while this stretch seems far-fetched, at least the movie works (for the most part). Unfortunately, we can't say the same for The Village. Good call, M. Night. Way to follow up a dud with a stinker.
OVERALL SCORE: 7.0 = C+
The score is inflated by an excellent first half and terrific acting that makes it worth watching. This is a movie that your senses will love, but your mind will reject. Still, if you can get past the "twist", you will have a good time. It's not nearly as good a film as the grossly underrated Unbreakable, but it is good. It just could have been great.
PLEASE, M. NIGHT. NO MORE TWISTS!