The Village ... Idiot?

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2004)

SPOILER!!!
Has it occurred to anyone else that Night intended his audience to feel deceived and misused just as Ivy feels when her father reveals that the forest monsters are not real? It's interesting that the fear of the monsters was used by the elders to keep the young people of the village from entering the woods just as Night (and/or the studio execs) used the monsters to get moviegoers to enter the theaters. The source of the outrage and vehemence against this movie is that it left many feeling like the village idiot. But one of the main points of the movie (and the main reason that Walker and the other adults founded the village in the first place) is that the monsters are all too real--in the real world. It would have cheapened this movie if the "monster" that attacked Ivy had been anything other than Noah in a costume. And doesn't that go to the heart of the movie? Even though the villagers adorn themselves with 19th century garb, utilize antiquated, stilted speech patterns, and seal themselves off from the rest of the world in their idyllic "utopia," they cannot escape the monsters living within themselves. Reviewers who focus solely on the predictable plot twists and lack of "real" monsters are missing the many thought- provoking points of this superb movie. Negative reviews of this movie only reveal that those reviewers lack the imagination and intelligence to appreciate Night's.