The Village is not to be seen.

Rating: 1/10 (31 July 2004)

Never before as an audience member have I felt so blatantly manipulated. Suspenseful music that at its climax comes to rest on views of gently bending trees or a peacefully rippling stream. The audience is tricked into believing it is a simpler time - period clothing, cumbersome speech, large outdoor Pilgrim-like feasts, and worst of all, a tombstone placing the date as 1897. The last was cheap - why when no one else in The Village except those prolific procreating Elders know what the actual date is anyway? Red hair, red lipstick - when red is verboten. The blind woman who sees in colors - don't ask me what color you are. The security guy lifting meds, the newspaper with all the murder and bad news, open, juxtaposed, M. Night in a reflection of a medicine cabinet. Please. This movie is vying with the Phantom Menace and Beethoven's 2nd as worst movie I have ever seen.