A story about love and courage (and some other stuff)

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2010)

This movie is an another great work from the master director Shaymalan and his partner music composer J.N.Howard who wrote a beautiful music background for this movie. Actors did a great work and the stand out is the female lead Bryce Dallas Howard who plays a beautiful and courageous blind girl. There is a lot of going on in this movie, I liked how you are able to feel the love between Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix). Lucius is the bravest boy in the village and his heart is big, he cares deeply about his friends but more than so he loves Ivy. Ivy is a blind girl, but her spirits are high and she is very kind and beautiful, with a courage that matches that of Lucius. Those two are most likely the brightest stars of the village. Well, the emotions are there for you to feel in this film, there is a tragic mad character that also loves Ivy and he out of selfishness attacks Lucius because he wants Ivy all for himself. This shows the thin line between love and hate, at the end the madman is all alone and instead of getting Ivy all for himself, she of course leaves him forever and he is left in his own personal hell. The one thing I would change is, when Ivy is in the forest she encounters one of the monsters and tricks the monster to fall into a pit. Owned by a blind girl, oh yeah! But I would keep that to be the actual monster because in the movie, the monster turns out to be the tragic madman that wanted Ivy for himself dressed as a monster. I would keep it a mystery because there is a legend that the strange creatures inhabit the forest after all. That would make Ivy's victory more complete in my eyes. That is the only thing I would change. This leaves the question of - what about the retard that stabbed Lucius then? Well he would most likely be kept locked inside his home for the rest of his life, so I don't know, it is f... up to kill him, but also it is f... up to support this asshole for the rest of your life. I guess an accidental death is a good solution for this character. And finally near the end of the movie, Ivy encounters a kind young man form the "towns". He is more of an exception to the rule because an average guy probably wouldn't be eager to help Ivy as this guy was. We see the average type guy a moment later, he is played by Shaymalan himself, that guy advises the kind guy not to talk with people while they are on the job. For a moment I was afraid the kind guy will listen to the asshole guy and not help Ivy. Thankfully that doesn't happen. So the message of the movie is? In our modern world we lack the connection between people that people have in the village, but we have technology to make our lives better (medicine). So maybe that kind guy was an example of how we need to be in our modern world, have some humanity and innocence and technology at the same time. Also, Ivy's younger sister was funny, she wanted to be with Lucius also but that was probably just a child like infatuation. Or was it? Childhood lasts for as long as you follow your dreams.