Work of an artist

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 2010)

To me, three movies from Shyamalan stand above others. The Sixth Sense was scary, Signs was extremely entertaining and finally The Village is a work of audiovisual art and emotion. Rest of Shyamalans movies didn't have as much impact on me, altho I may need to return to Unbreakable one day.
There are summer movies, winter movies, and of course spring and autumn movies. The Village is a definite autumn movie, like Hitchcocks The Trouble With Harry. The color scheme is amazing, all the tones of yellow from cold bleak woods to warm light of the candles. Everything accented with dark shadows and occasional reds. This is one of the most beautiful movies to ever hit the screens.
The soundtrack is also amazing with the violin played by Hilary Hahn. The sounds are a perfect companion to the cold late autumn visuals. The "Those we don't speak of" scene may just be one of the greatest moments on film. The combination of sound and visuals is breathtaking.
The story has been bashed many times. In a movie with such powerful artistic touch, I don't see the plot that important, but I also don't see many faults there. There are a few scenes, which may seem a bit "fantasylike" and one unnecessary explanation, but despite these, it's a very clever and well thought of story. Shyamalan must have exercised his brain really hard to make the story work, and in my mind he succeeded very well.
Even tho there is a twist in the end, the movie is not completely dependent on it, unless you yourself put all emphasis on it. If you do, you may feel a bit let down, because it's not 100 % in your face revelation. If you only expect the movie to drop you off your chair in the end, you will miss a lot, as this is a movie of emotion and subtle nuances.
It would be fun to see this movie again, without ever seeing it before and never having heard anything about it. Now I feel the first time I saw it was ruined a bit by all the negative hype. As it is, I find myself returning to this movie at least once a year, even if I know the story already.