"The Village"- The beginning of M. Night Shyamalan's fall. Fascinating ideas and genuinely eerie set-pieces brought down by a meandering pace and contrived eccentricity.

Rating: 6/10 (6 July 2017)

The career of M. Night Shyamalan has been a fascinating and harrowing thing to follow over the past twenty years. His explosive success with 1999's "The Sixth Sense" was something of a revelation, and it rocketed him to super-stardom in the annals of film history. After following it up with two films I feel are equal in every way to that iconic and indisputable classic in the form of contemplative superhero drama "Unbreakable" and the mind-warping alien-invasion thriller "Signs", Shyamalan could do no wrong as far as many were concerned. Little did we know what the near future would hold, and just how far he would fall before finding rebuilding himself back up. In some ways, it could be argued that 2002's "Signs" was the last truly great Shyamalan thriller we'd get until 2017's remarkable and brilliantly entertaining "Split."
And for many people, it was his fourth major release, the period- piece supernatural thriller "The Village", that signaled the start of his downfall. While by no means a terrible film and benefiting from sharp direction and strong performances, "The Village" is where the confident idea that Shyamalan always knew exactly what he was doing began to crack. On one hand... yeah, it had a lot of the things that we ate up in his previous efforts. The quirky characters, the bone-chilling horror... and yet, it was starting to feel a bit stale. Often feeling like someone else trying to imitate Shyamalan's style than an actual Shyamalan feature. His previously careful, deliberate pacing and focus was starting to feel aimless and meandering. His idiosyncratic humor and peculiar characters began to feel contrived and shoehorned. And his oft- shocking twists and turns became shallow and predictable. Now don't get me wrong... "The Village" does have a lot to offer thanks to the elements that do work and on the whole I think the film is enjoyable. But it's still a massive step in the wrong direction.
In the 19th century, in the village of Covington reside a small and tightly knit community of families, who all live in fear of the treacherous creatures who stalk the woods around them at night- "Those we don't speak of." In order to maintain balance, a set of rules has been crafted to keep everyone safe. Two young villagers- Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) and the blind Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) admit their attraction to one-another and intend on marrying. However, their happy news comes at a cost, when their close friend, the mentally-challenged Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) cannot accept their love and attempts to murder Lucius in a fit of jealous rage. After pleading with village elders, Ivy is given a chance to help her love- she is permitted to enter the Covington woods and try to navigate past the devious monsters that populate it, so that she can obtain medicine from the next town over to try and save Lucius. However, her journey will bring about revelations regarding Covington and the men and women who populate it... revelations that may threaten to destroy the once- strong community.
The greatest strengths of the film lie in its exquisite beauty from a production standpoint, in addition to the generally stellar performances of our three main leads. This is one very good-looking and sounding movie, with some of the sharpest camera-work and jaw- droppingly gorgeous music of any Shyamalan feature. The visual guidance is top-notch from start to finish, and Shyamalan is able to paint a dark and troubled portrait of a town haunted with his stunning storytelling. James Newton Howard's score rightfully earned an Oscar nod, and it's some of his best- complimented by the expert violinist Hilary Hahn, who performs a great deal of work on the score. Our three leads in Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard and Adrian Brody are all absolutely incredible in their respective roles and will immediately earn great admiration from the viewer. Particularly Howard, who gives one of the best performances of her career in this film. Unfortunately, the supporting cast is mixed, with some of the actors including William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver feeling woefully underutilized and out of place.
And unfortunately, as I mentioned above, this is the film where Shyamalan begins to go a bit too far with his material, at times making the film feel like a borderline self-satire. I almost get the feeling that the film was rushed into production without a second draft having been written, because it all feels a bit sloppy. Shyamalan's quirky characters are there... but they're a bit more stale and a bit less defined. The focus and pacing is methodical and deliberate... and yet all too often the film begins to feel tedious and overwrought. Rules are established and ideas introduced... and yet the film does little with the concepts presented, lacking payoff. And without spoiling anything, anyone who is aware of Shyamalan's penchant for introducing game-changing twists into his finales will be able to see what's coming from a mile away. In a lot of ways, the movie feels like its slaving to try and be the next great Shyamalan film by trying to repeat what he does well. But it's not organic. It's a bit too cold and clinical. Even robotic. It's like a computer wrote the film based on a Shyamalan algorithm. The ideas are there... but the humanity is lacking.
"The Village" is a troubled film. And it is the movie that signals the start of the dark age for the promising filmmaker behind it. And yet, the stellar performances, sharp visual storytelling and absolutely gorgeous musical score are able to salvage and indeed save the film from imploding. It's not a great film... it's probably not even a good film. But it's solid enough that I'd recommend it to open-minded viewers. It might not be the classic that "The Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable" and "Signs" became. But it's adequate. I give it an ever-so-slightly above average 6 out of 10.