Chilling? No. Moving? Yes.

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2006)

The Village was a strange experience for me. I came out of it having genuinely enjoyed the film, but a little part of me wanted to slap M. Night Shyamalan for changing gears so often in the movie. The nightmare with reviewing this movie is that if I reveal why it's a bittersweet victory of a film, I'll ruin the last act and negate anybody's reason for watching the film.
So instead, I'll concentrate on why it's good. Most of it's charm comes from the sheer visual richness of the movie, and the rest comes from the central performances of William Hurt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Joaquim Phoenix. All of them hand in warm, emotive turns that elevate the movie.
The story is quite moving too. It's part human drama, part Twilight Zone episode, and it works very well. I thought it was much more moving than it was scary, in fact, certain things occur in the movie that present a large obstacle to it continuing to be as creepy as it starts out, and it's this moving nature that made me enjoy it. It has some lovely, wonderful scenes, especially a quiet, restrained and beautiful scene between Phoenix and Howard.
Still, while I recommend The Village, it has it's flaws. There's a slight awkwardness to the script that makes it seem that it's trying too hard, and some of the last act twists are both frustrating and make it really hard to emphasize with some characters in hindsight. Despite this, it's an emotional and heart-warming couple of hours, twists or no twists, thanks largely to Howard and Hurt's barnstorming central performances.