Shyamalan Has Cornered himself in his "twist"-trap

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2004)

First the good news: Bryce Howard is very good in her first starring role . Roger Deakins' photography continues to amaze (how he doesn't have an Oscar on his shelf is a shame).
The rest, I fear, is bad. Very bad. For if this weren't a major studio release by someone of Shyamalan's track record, this is straight-to-video stuff. Ridiculous, dull, pseudo-serious and a major cop-out.
The film would have failed under its own weight regardless, but it is becoming clear that Shyamalan has fallen into a trap of his own making with his now patented 'Twist Ending' mandate. A former master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, once stated that audiences were becoming so keen on spotting Hitchcock's portly figure in his cameos, that they were distracted from paying attention to the film (and therefore, Hitchcock made his appearances sooner and sooner to the start of the film).
And now, I fear, a similar thing is happening to Shyamalan's films. Audiences are so cued into the inevitable 'twist ending' that they are hunting for clues from the start of the film so they can maybe guess what it may be (Is Bryce Howard "blind" for a reason? Who was the first to spot the red plants? Why is Adrien Brody grinning all the time? It must all "mean" SOMETHING!). It stops the film dead in its tracks. Of course, if it weren't for the fact that the last 3 films' 'twists' all were fairly mundane doesn't help matters. But, the important point is that Shyamalan break away from this repetitious trap and make films that follow a plot and its characters straight to its conclusion - even a (shudder the thought) PREDICTABLE ending! Otherwise, Shyamalan may be in danger of becoming the William Castle of his generation (without Castle's sense of fun).