the village is half empty.

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 2004)

SPOILER I am a fan of M. Night Shyamalan--6th Sense and Signs I really enjoyed and Unbreakable was OK. After seeing this film, though, I left the theater troubled with too many unanswered questions. Are the 8 elders really mentally distraught over all their 'losses' that they'd think its the 1800s and live like Amish people?? Would they really have lived there for 20 some years and have no one discover they're there? Call me naive or oblivious but I did not see the twists coming but once they revealed themselves, the film began to fall apart. The first 3/4 of the film is OK--the audience freaked at the "one who shall not be named" and the thrills that ensued. Adrien Brody as the village idiot was interesting--I'm not sure what 'modern' complication he has---ADD among other things I'm sure. If Ron Howard's daughter was to play a more convincing blind person--she should have been directed to the way Al Pacino portrayed a blind colonel in Scent of a woman. I like Shyamalan but he needs to change his routine up a bit in his next film...otherwise this might be it for him.