Less than average movie

Rating: 4/10 (16 February 2005)

M. Night Shyamalan is for movies what The Strokes are for music. He's made a critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut and now it's going steadily downhill for him. "The Sixth Sense" was highly original and very successful and bought him some time in Hollywood. "The Village" indicates that this time is almost over. Shyamalan movies have never been famous for fast pacing. They take some time to get started, but about halfway through you should be well into the story and starting to get all thrilled by the events. The problem with "The Village" is, it never gets started. It goes quiet scene after quiet scene with LOTS of whispered dialog. With so much dialog you'd think you get some character development. Wrong! The characters remain shallow and uninteresting and the whole movie is just an incredible bore. The direction is absolutely horrible, too. Why would Shyamalan always shoot people's backs? Seriously, sometimes it seems as if the director just put the camera anywhere and went to have a cup of coffee while the actors were performing. Maybe, the idea was to show how everybody in the village is keeping a secret by shooting people's backs all the time. Even if this was the intention behind it, it was still executed badly and seemed very unprofessional. From the last three movies Shyamalan has made, we know that he always tries to come up with a surprise ending. Problem is, the twist is too easy to figure out this time. Although the idea itself isn't half bad, it could have used some more (or better) story lines around. As it is, "The Village" merely would qualify as an episode of Twilight Zone. If Shyamalan doesn't come up with something really great next time the audience is going to lose interest. It's sad because he has shown in the past that he is capable of delivering intriguing and original work in his best moments. "The Village" definitely doesn't fall into this category, though.