So many problems!

Rating: 1/10 (25 August 2004)

If you've not seen it, I can't recommend it (it's one to rent). Read on only if you want the plot spoilt or, like me, had lots of questions about how the plot bears scrutiny.
I knew going into the movie there had to be a twist and knowing that the villagers couldn't leave the village made my mind race with possibilities. It turns out the village is NOT a human zoo aboard a spaceship. Maybe that would have made the film more interesting.
You can tell from the opening scene that the cemetery looks old. The fence is skewiff and has not been painted for awhile. This seems very uncharacteristic for such fastidious people.
The village seemed far too prosperous for being a backwoods type of place. In that era even glass windows were a luxury, so to see a widow living alone with her son in a huge rambling house seemed very unlikely.
Their stories of 'the towns' seemed horribly over the top. Those boxes of secrets in their homes were casually left in full view. And does this village never get anyone passing by, or any hunters or trappers going through their woods?
So we have a bunch of emotionally scarred people playing at being Victorian re-enactors thanks to a billionaire's fortunes. How did these city folk take to living off the land so easily? Wouldn't the killing of their livestock mean a huge threat to their livelihood (who WAS killing the livestock and WHY?). And just how many children did these handful of people manage to have?
You can see why I found it so unsatisfying with all these questions. Plus the leaden dialogue. Plus seeing the blind girl run through the woods at full pelt. Plus the convenience of having all the bad and inexplicable things being done by the village idiot. It prevented me from enjoying the symbolism the story is obviously trying to represent about America's position in the world.