Loved it!

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2008)

I loved it!
Another horror (or was it sci-fi?) movie for adults, or at least for people of all ages who have more than two brain cells to rub together. We're beginning to see more of those and thank Yog-Sothoth for that! I was beginning to fear the genre (not gen-dre by the way, just genre ending with an almost silent "e") had died and gone to teeny bopper cat-jumps-on-the-table-and-that's-supposed-to-be-a-very-scary-moment hell.
Shyamalan claims he just wanted to make a B flick. Well, folks, he missed his mark once again. I say he perpetrated a damn good, atmospheric film. He's got a knack for setting up nearly silent, eerie screen moments that really put you on the edge of your seat. In his way, he's got as much timing and pacing as Stephen King does. The actors do a very good job (I can't believe Wahlberg used to be a pop idol: he's actually become a pretty decent actor), there's some very interesting camera work, and I felt I was told a captivating story.
Is it flawless? Nope, but it's really, really well done nevertheless. It kept me there and involved 'till the end. It was worth my bucks, my time, and writing about it.
Is the ending bad? Nein, mein Liebling. The ending could have been more flamboyant (I'm thinking, say, of the hand that emerges from the grave at the end of Carrie) but I think that anything else would have been cliché. I liked the ending just the way it was. The story's mainly a snapshot in the life of the main characters and life, from what I know, usually just ends without fanfare, explanations or big revelations. So it's a perfectly "legal" ending to a good movie.
The last two characters we see in the movie are, if I'm not mistaken, a gay couple or at least gay friends. I really like the way they're portrayed: very naturally as just two human beings walking and chatting in the park on a nice summer day. This, in its own small subtle way is a masterstroke. To a person like me who is sick to death of hearing and reading about gay this and gay that all the time (I mean : who cares?), it was very refreshing.
I'm really curious to see what Shyamalan's going to come up with next.
Now, if he could just learn to spell his name right...
Kirktoons