The curse of the damned legend- a film worthy of both Oscars and Razzies

Rating: 4/10 (7 August 2004)

Make no mistake, M. Night Shyamalan, the filmmaker behind The Village as well as the hits Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, has carved a niche in Hollywood that will still be relevant after his latest. His style as a director is unmistakable, as he lays on the dread and suspense for the audience with his stories of the supernatural and citizens at the mercy of outside forces. One problem though with Shyamalan's series of films since his monumental success with 6th Sense, is that either the audience expects a good twist or two in the third acts and Shyamalan sticks to this ideology, or he feels that he has to do it to keep the audience on edge.
While it may be coarse to suggest that The Village would be more terrifying in its third act as something of an exploitation horror film, the way it turns out The Village becomes, well, sort of silly. It's the kind of third act that tries to get the audience thinking deeper past the realm of a super-natural suspense thriller, but the logic behind it doesn't work. To me, the screenplay is deserved of a razzie nomination. On the other hand, at least half of the performances are better than expected by the main cast. Though some of them might seem to be over-acting (i.e. William Hurt), under-acting (Joaquin Phoenix), and only finding the balance in here and there (Adrian Brody's performance will disappoint those expecting him to astound as in The Pianist), at least one comes out with a slight breakthrough (Ron Howard's daughter Bryce, playing a blind character, with the only flaw in the performance being it's not always believable that she's blind).
Shyamalan gives us these characters, some of them rather archetypal, and they all live in a Village that keeps everything hidden and darkened by the elders. When one of them (Howard) has to leave, it leads to the climax, and the twists. But the best side to the film, outside of the flaws in the story and acting, is the look of the film, the way the images are presented and cut together. Even if Shyamalan doesn't have every bit of himself as he has before in the script, he does seem to have a distinct, intriguing style via the marvelous Roger Deakins and editor Christopher Tellefson. Indeed, it was that end alone that kept me in my seat, and occasionally gave me some goose-bumps. And yet, by the end of the film, I felt more cheated than surprised and ecstatic at what came as the finishing touch. The Village is a mixed bag, worth checking out but not at the same time. C+