A superb movie

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2006)

This is the movie that finally taught me to forever ignore the critics, at least as an undifferentiated mass. What they have to say about this (and other movies of M. Night Shyamalan) is of a piece with the way Pauline Kael used to dismiss Hitchcock movies as fluffy, second-rate thrillers. Or the way logical-positivists dismiss all philosophy. Here's a clue: If you're an MSM movie critic and see and dislike one of this fine director's movies, spare yourself some professional embarrassment and recuse yourself. "The Village" isn't a complicated movie, but it does explore some quite interesting subject matter--what constitutes and sustains a community, what role does the individual play, how do the tensions between individual and community play out and, in that process, how deeply does this interplay challenge and touch our hearts. Touch-feely critics whose critical faculties are formed in our therapy-driven society apparently are just not equipped to see or understand any of this.