The Village: 6/10

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2004)

The most effective way to get a demographic to a movie where they wouldn't normally go is by misleading trailers. If the trailers for The Hulk depicted it to be an outstanding drama, like it was, I would doubt it would get its money back. The same goes for The Village. M. Night Shyamalan, known for his what-you-don't-see-scares-you type of movies (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), now has done The Village, which, according to the ads, is a scare-fest around 1900. In reality, it's a period piece about some haunted woods. The movie chronicles their interactions with each other, for the most part.
In a small village surrounded by woods, the people of Covington live in constant fear of the creatures that live in the woods around. They have struck up a shaky deal with them-neither of them enter the other's territory. Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) is blind and is in mutual love with taciturn Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix). Since it seems that simple-minded Noah (Adrien Brody) can enter the woods without being harmed, Lucius tries it and ends up disturbing the balance between the two life forms. Soon Lucius is put out of commission and Ivy has to walk through the woods to get medicine. You know, even though it's 1900, I would think that people would have more sense than to have a blind person go through haunted woods by themselves.
Shyamalan knows how to create fear, and for a few fleeting seconds, he does in The Village. The failing point is that there's barely any moments in which that could happen. Most of the movie is spent on the characters and unnecessary subplots that have no purpose. Shyamalan knows the what-you-don't-see-scares-you way of going about it, but with another overbearing score, James Newton Howard takes the what-you-hear-scares-you way of going about it, and winds up being almost farcical, which is what the movie becomes at times. Seeing the creatures is one of the funniest moments in a movie this year. I mean...come on! Still, when it is scary, it's pretty damn intense. But for one minute out of a 108 minute movie, it's not a good ratio.
Shyamalan is known for his twists at the end of movies. The Sixth Sense had one that was truly shocking; Unbreakable's was also mind-blowing but one I'd need to see again, but Signs' was just plain silly. Many people feel that in both Signs and The Village he's writing a script so he can have a twist at the end. The twist is what basically saved this movie. It's a shocking twist, one that I didn't get, and most people didn't, also, even though they say they did. It's much better than the stupidity of Signs' ending. That's where the first hour and a half comes in. It's basically fluff, with unnecessary subplots thrown in (including the love twist with Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt) and a bunch of random characters. Also, with the slow build-up of the creatures, instead of a slow pay-off of slowly revealing the monsters, they come out all at once. And as I said before, I cracked up when I saw them.
The acting here isn't as good as Shyamalan's others. Phoenix (who seems to have taken over the wheel from Bruce Willis) isn't as good as he was in Signs, surprisingly. Howard isn't worthy of all of this praise, but she was still good. Weaver doesn't have much to do, but Hurt totally owns the screen whenever he's on. If you're looking for a reason to see this movie, see it for William Hurt. I'll probably be killed for this, but I think Brody was better here than in The Pianist. He seems to be having fun here. If you go into The Village looking for a fun time, you probably won't find it. You may come out of it with more than I did, but it has its moments, especially at the end.
My rating: 6/10
Rated PG-13 for a scene of violence and frightening situations.