A story of love, not monsters.

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2004)

I expected a variation of Signs when I dragged my girlfriend along to see The Village. This expectation was fuelled by the endless speculation infecting the internet over the possible endings to Night's 4th movie (no, I can't spell his name). How wrong I was. How wrong they were.
The Village is no monster film, though it has monsters in it. There is no shock-horror twist, though all is not what it seems. The Village is a story of love, and the finest I have seen in a long time.
We witness the love between Lucius (Pheonix) and Ivy (Howard) with such immense beauty, visualised so simply by his taking of her hand at any moment she reaches out. Her love is returned by venturing into the forbidden woods for him, even though she is blind. The love of the elders for their children, and children's children, by sacrificing all they used to have. The love of Ivy's father (Hurt) for Lucius's mother (Weaver), as he sacrifices the safety of his blind daughter to the woods...
The Village is a beautiful film with talent pouring from every scene. My biggest regret is that we don't see enough of Howard and Pheonix - even if they were in every shot, we wouldn't see enough of them.