Well the final twist was good...

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2004)

When watching the trailer of 'The Village' you would think it would be a horror movie but it is far from a horror movie. The Village is an ensemble drama. M. Night Shyamalan tried something new with his new movie. He put his signature surprise ending but everything happening before that is different from any of his other movies. Unfortunately, everything that happens before the ending is boring. Warning: There will be some spoilers!
The plot is about a secluded area called 'The Village'. No one can leave the village where the "towns" lay because there are monsters in the woods. So all the people of the village are stuck there but do seem to be living happily. In the village lives a blind girl named Ivy Walker (newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard) and Lucius Hunter (Joaquin Phoenix) who fall in love. However, Ivy's mentally ill friend, Noah Percy (Adrien Brody), stabs Lucius because he is jealous and doesn't want to lose Ivy. Lucius wound is extremely serious but the elder, Edward Walker (William Hurt), allows Ivy to venture off through the woods to the towns to get the medicine for Lucius.
That is the most I can say about the plot without ruining everything. However, I can say the plot was extremely dry and boring until the very end when everything came together. In the first half of the film, we basically see love blossom between Ivy and Lucius. However, Lucius is such a dry and forgettable character that there is no connection what so ever between them.
This could be the worst and most forced love story that I have ever seen. The second half, however, picks up as we see Ivy venture out to find medicine for Lucius and find out the truth about the village.
This is an ensemble cast so there really isn't a character you follow scene to scene like you would see in other M. Night Shyamalan films. If I had to name a main character though, it would be Ivy Walker played by Brynn Dallas Howard. She is a newcomer and her first performance is by far the best one in the film. She captures a scared and blind person amazingly. Joaquin Phoenix, however, has the most boring character in the film and he ruins the first half of the film. However, its not him as a actor who ruins the first half of the film but its his boringly written character. Adrien Brody is also amazing as the mentally ill Noah Percy. He truly shows his acting ability here but unfortunately as soon as his character is important he disappears. William Hurt gives his usual performance as a dry and plain character, who happens to be the elder in this movie. Sigourney Weaver is wasted in this film. She does the best she can with the little screen time she has. She deserved a bigger and better role than this one.
My biggest complaint about this film is when the twist is revealed, everything comes together but we do not see how is affects the characters. This is by far the biggest problem with the movie because the most exciting part about the twist is seeing the characters reaction and we don't see that. I can't get into this complaint too much without spoiling the movie but the ending was just plain awful even though the twist was great.
Overall, the final twist is great along with Bryce Dallas Howard and Adrien Brody's performances. But other than that the film is very disappointing. If you don't know anything about the movie I recommend you to see it just for the final twist.