Not a masterpiece, but well executed and better than they want you to believe

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2008)

After a seemingly invincible double hit consisting of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan hit a slightly false note with Signs, which is quite good but was strongly criticized nonetheless, mostly for its admittedly weak ending. The Village seems to continue in that direction, at least according to the majority of critics (Roger Ebert's review was particularly harsh). The reason I said "seems" is because The Village is a competent, enjoyable movie - not a masterwork, and occasionally less accomplished than Signs, but still undisputed proof of Shyamalan's gift as a storyteller.
What sets this film apart from those preceding it is the setting: the titular village is located somewhere in Pennsylvania, and the date is the 19th Century. The village, inhabited by the elders, their children and grandchildren, is surrounded by woods, and no one is allowed to enter them. Why? Because the woods are supposedly populated by Those We Do Not Speak Of, some kind of monstrous breed that won't attack the villagers unless directly provoked. They occasionally show up after dark, and they're repulsed by the color red.
Among the people living in the village who deserve to be mentioned are Lucius Fox (Joaquin Phoenix), a brave young man who doesn't fear the creatures like everyone else, and Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard), a blind girl with whom he has a special bond. When Lucius suddenly falls ill (to reveal more would spoil the fun), Ivy volunteers to travel to the city to find medicine, unafraid of defying whatever's hiding in the woods. Amongst the general protest, her father (William Hurt) expresses his approval with a cryptic phrase that gains significance as the story progresses.
A slow start notwithstanding, Shyamalan manages to create a sense of quiet dread very quickly, thanks to expert use of camera angles, cinematography, and of course James Newton Howard's tunes. Subtly evoking The Wicker Man with its atmosphere, The Village drags the viewer into a different world, an uncontaminated society devoid of any real evil. In that sense, the film is a clever twist on the utopia genre: generally, these worlds exist in the future, not the past.
However, that's not the kind of twist we expect from the director, and that's where the film's major disappointment reveals itself: the usual shocking final revelation is practically spoon-fed to the audience halfway through, not to mention delivered as flatly as is humanly possible. This does detract from the twist's impact, but it doesn't diminish its intelligence: taken on its own, it's worth comparing to the endings of Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.
Then there's the cast, another partial misfire: although Hurt is warm and reassuring, Brendan Gleeson and Sigourney Weaver have practically nothing significant to do in the film, and Adrien Brody's demented role is nothing but a contrived plot device. On the flip-side, Phoenix is very good (the scene where Lucius tells Ivy how he feels about her is the most touching tender moment Shyamalan's filmed), and Howard, cast without an audition after the director saw her in a stage play (he didn't know she was related to former Happy Days star Ron Howard), is mesmerizing: playing her first major part without much experience (a few cameos in her dad's movies don't really count), she portrays Ivy as good-hearted and a little naive but never stupid, which is why she manages to hold the entire second half of the picture on her shoulders pretty much flawlessly.
Bottom line: quit nagging about the ending. As I said in my review of The Sixth Sense, a good conclusion is no big thing if the overall movie disappoints. Well, the opposite applies too: a sub-par epilogue doesn't completely ruin an otherwise fine film.
7,5/10