I want to live in the Village

Rating: 9/10 (9 August 2004)

I saw "The Village" at a midnight movie on opening night. I'm a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's other films and I was anxious to see this one. I was immediately drawn to the simplicity of life in the village and the loving way that the characters interacted. I was surprised at how drawn I was to the community and their supportive, self-sufficient lifestyle. Their total acceptance and integration of characters who were flawed or handicapped into village life was compelling. The underlying tension of trying to avoid "the bad color" and keeping the monsters at bay seemed peripheral to the interaction of the characters and the love story that developed between Joaqim Phoenix and Bryce Howard and the loving tension that was suggested between William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver.
However, when the action heated up after the betrothal scene, the crowd in the theater went wild. They laughed uproariously at scenes that shocked and saddened me. I had invested my emotions in the characters, and many of the audience seemed to be oblivious to their pain and heartache. Every time there was a scare or a shock, the audience would laugh or someone would shout out something completely inappropriate to the mood of the moment.
I don't go to the theater to watch movies very often. I prefer to watch them at home. I loved this movie and was truly touched and surprised and entertained. However, I came home feeling that I lived in some angry, antagonistic, juvenile society where people don't care about each other and can't empathize. I lay in bed that night, thinking that I would rather live in a loving village where there are monsters lurking just out of sight than in a society where the monsters are sitting next to you in the dark, laughing at pain and deriding some good acting and a worthy piece of work.