A study of group dynamics more than a scary movie.

Rating: Null/10 (9 February 2005)

I saw "The Village" on DVD, picture and sound are superb. We have a small village in the wilderness somewhere, it appears to be the late 1800s. They are self-sufficient, have no contact with the "outside" world, avoid anything red, and the elders meet to make decisions for all. They appear to be one big family, the younger ones appear happy, the elders somber. The movie is NOT about what it seems initially, and I do not discuss that until after the "spoilers" warning below. Not one of the best movies I have seen lately, and in the end not very thought provoking, but still and enjoyable almost two hours.
Feb 2010 update: After almost 5 years I saw this again. I was only planning to watch a small part of it but found myself immersed and watched the whole thing again. Knowing the basic "twist" didn't matter, in some ways it was more enjoyable to see how the story was constructed. Just a bit prolonged and slow in some scenes, but overall a very good movie.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. William Hurt plays Edward Walker, chief elder and father of the blind girl, Ivy, played by Opie's daughter, Bryce Howard. Their few buildings and modest sized field are surrounded by Covington Woods, which the elders say are inhabited by 'those who we do not speak of.' Occasionally they will see a strange looking creature dressed in red flowing garb, and some of their livestock and chickens will be found dead, and skinned. Sometimes even large red "slashes" painted on some doors, after all villagers emerge from their hiding places in cellars. Only Lucius appears unafraid, saying "I don't worry about what might happen, only what needs to be done."
The whole thing is a ruse by the elders to keep the youngsters from straying. They created the red costumes and hide them under floors, and only use them when necessary to reinforce the fear. We only find out at the end, when Edward opens a secret box, and see newspaper clippings, all the elders were there because they had lost a loved one to violence related to the love of money and other material things. Edward, a Pennsylvania professor who also lost his wife, took all these people into a remote section of a Game Preserve to attempt this experiment, to live in isolation from the rest of the world and worldly treasures. A simple and pure life.
Their plight is illuminated when Jucius (Joaquin Phoenix) is mortally wounded by the village idiot Noah (Adrian Brody) who become jealous when Ivy and Lucius decide to get married. Since all the elders had pledged to never leave the Village, and Ivy had pledged her love for Lucius, she was allowed to go through the forest to find a town and medicine to cure Lucius' infection. Noah discovers a red costume and follows her, in a very forced plot twist, and she tricks him into falling in a pit. At the end of the road she climbs over a wall, is spotted by a modern time Ranger in a vehicle, no one is supposed to be in the Game Preserve, she tells him her story, he finds medicine at the nearest ranger station, she brings it back to the Village, we suspect the Village will continue in its experiment.