James Newton Howard saves the day

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2005)

I am kind of baffled by this movie  I have problems describing it!
"Unbelievable lack of advertising strategy" would be my first observation. M. Night Shyamalan has made his career with suspenseful thrillers with plot twists at the very end, but "The Village" takes a somewhat different step, perhaps unnoticed to the untrained eye. The entire movie still looks and feels exactly the same as the rest of M.'s previous movies, which, in this case is more of a negative than a positive thing, yet at the same time it's exactly this rich quality of production that gives it the strongest assets. Let's face it, "The Village" is yet another one of M.'s misunderstood movies due to "poorly educated" viewers. I'm talking about the type that doesn't get the blatantly obvious or the blatantly irrelevant and writes posts like "what color does Ivy see in Luscious and her father". A Non-important, Irrellevant one, btw!. The exquisite ensemble of actors and actresses (special kudos to the sexy redhead Bryce Dallas Howard) made the script breathe and gave sense to M's story. But what saved the whole movie was the musical score. James Newton Howard singlehandedly brought life to "The Village". What this man does is beyond me, I can describe it only as perfection. Every score he has so far composed for M felt like the movie was made after the score so it could blend in just the right way. The music editing deserves a ton of recognition and praise as well because it gave the movie just the right tone and atmosphere. M's movies have always demanded the viewers utmost attention, and so far this has always been rewarded many times over. "The Village" will probably be remembered as one of his weakest and least liked movies, and I have to understand why. He has been using the same style of story-telling since 1999 and this movie should have been an exception because it stands out. The story is minimalistic (as are the "twists" towards the end) and if one doesn't pay enough attention the main theme of the movie gets easily lost. It's love! I think. The plot, the motives, even the explanations are pretty shaky but this movie delivers numerous amazing moments that I know I'll just want to see over and over again. M is THE MASTER of subtlety and if you won't see it in "The Village" you won't see it anywhere else! And it's exactly these incredibly subtle, thought-out scenes that have immense power and are the best parts (literally) of the movie. It's because of them that I enjoyed "The Village" as much as I did and looked past the simple story that never even intended to be the key thing here (it's even revealed before the end). It's unnoticed things like cinematography that treats the character of Ivy differently that any other character because she can't see, it's the barely noticed tear on her left cheek that falls down her face when Luscious declares his love to her, it's the expression that he makes when he gets stabbed, it's the breath-takingly perfect last 5 seconds of the movie, then the score with instant fade to blackpriceless! I sincerely have to admit I have no idea what happened to the 60 million dollar budget and where it went to, but "The Village" does feel rich (despite mostly being in a very minimalistic location), full of details, and manages to provide the absolute best of sound, style, cinematography, acting and music making it an absolute treat for the senses. And I actually like the fact that this movie is generally hated, it makes it more mine on some personal level. 7/10
Recommendations: any avid fans of M, you are the ones that will appreciate this movie, anyone into great sound and music editing, cinematography, outstanding acting performancesthe works. BUT A WORD OF CAUTION-don't expect much from the story, this time the movie relies completely on the actors and the solid production.