Evasion

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2004)

A few people (The Elders) decided to evade this world of crime, anguish and pain and found a community in a secluded place surrounded by woods where they lead a life of peace, purity, love and quietness, dressing like 100 years ago and dispensing with such niceties as electrical power, cinema, radio, TV and motor cars. The way how they managed to get into this remains unrevealed to the viewer until the end of the movie and even then it doesn't become 100% clear. Well but what could be an Eden-like life is spoiled on the one hand by the belief that no one can go out of the village and cross the woods that surround it because they are inhabited by strange hostile creatures who will not only kill those who dare to do it but will also attack the village and on the other hand because human passions cannot be suppressed with all the distress they can cause and even jealousy and crime. This leads us to the vexed question of knowing if the solution for the evils of modern society lie in the evasion to supposed retired paradises where in spite of that, drama will be always present because the freer men are more drama will take place in their lives. And what to do when crime happens or the illness comes and you don't have the adequate means of dealing with it? But this story is indeed well told and homogeneous in narrative terms and will rivet your attention. Bryce Dallas Howard has a superb performance in the part of the blind girl who courageously faces danger in order to save the life of the man she loves. To sum it up we are in presence not of a masterpiece but of a good movie anyway.