Shyamalan's New Voice

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2004)

Much of the charm and success of Shyamalan's last three films ("The Sixth Sense," "Unbreakable," and "Signs) was that he used a very realistic directoral style and a limited number of well-developed characters in a supernatural framework rather than designing a typical ghost story, superhero story, or alien story. I find it incredibly interesting to see this and that was why I wanted to see "The Village." I honestly hated "The Sixth Sense," absolutely loved "Unbreakable" and only somewhat liked "Signs;" so I was probably the only person there who would call myself a Shyamalan fan and say I was hoping it wouldn't be "The Sixth Sense."
And it wasn't. In fact, it was hardly Shyamalan. While it did retain his films' beautiful look and still wasn't overly formalistic, "The Village" shows a much more formalistic bent than Shyamalan has shown before, employing much more camera manipulation than Shyamalan's last films had. It was also different because the number of characters was greater (which is ironic, since "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" both take place in the metropolis of Philadelphia and even "Signs" is in a less isolated location) and their depth lesser. The other elements that defined it from the other Shyamalan hits was that the story before the ending was full of twists where the others saved up their only twist for the end ("Signs" excepted) and it did not have a twist at the end as all of the others did--which to me was a welcome sign of Shyamalan's narrative growth.
The acting in the film was very uneven, highlighted by excellent performances by Adrien Brody as Noah Percy and Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius Hunt. *SPOILERS AHEAD* While for the most part Phoenix is not given much emotion to show, it is amazing to note the ferocious, intense look his face gets whenever Ivy is in danger--give him about five years and I'm sure Phoenix will have a well-deserved Oscar under his belt. *SPOILERS OVER* Adrien Brody meanwhile also gave an excellent performance, giving his character a sympathetic quality that a lesser actor could easily not have given us. Despite the actions of Noah Percy, I could not help but feel sorry for him when we saw his face--Brody is the youngest best actor winner in Oscar history for a reason, after all. Meanwhile, Bryce Dallas Howard was awful as Ivy Walker. While sometimes she had a lack of emotion that could be explained away by her blindness, at other times she did not keep the emotional lack in check, which made her unbelievable. In small roles, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver were also weak and difficult to believe.
Shyamalan's script's major flaw was its forced dialogue. There was no reason for these people to talk this way and it was obviously unnatural for the actors except for Adrien Brody, who did not have the type of ultra-formal, unflowing, ugly dialogue that the others did--instead his was often rather unintelligible, which was sensible. Perhaps Shyamalan was just attempting to pull us deeper into this world, but I found it very distracting. The characters also lack the depth of those in his previous films, but are still not terrible. The plot was actually quite good--probably the second-best Shyamalan has come up with (only to "Unbreakable") and had a few unforseen twists along the way.
In summary, "The Village" either marks a new direction for Shyamalan's career--aiming in a more plot-driven way as a writer and leaning in a more formalistic direction as a director--or an anomaly that we will look back on in 20 years and say, "That was M. Night Shyamalan?" It doesn't feel or seem quite like a Shyamalan film, but it still has some strengths--a good plot, excellent performances by Adrien Brody and Joaquin Phoenix, and general scenic beauty--and those strengths outweigh its weaknesses sufficiently to make a satisfying film overall. It may not be what Shyamalan's fans want to see, but non-Shyamalan fans may want to give it a try.