Shyamalan, you went back... (to good film making)

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 2004)

What a surprise!.
After watching the awful Signs movie I told myself I would never go to watch any other Shyamalan movies. It was a pity because I thought Shyamalan was very talented but movies went more and more bad since The Sixth Sense.
So, when The Village started in USA I read the bad critics from everyone and I supposed it was really a bad movie... just what I was thinking.... no surprises.
BUT!, the story sounded so good I couldn't resist. This Friday the movie started in Spain (amazing translation for the movie title...., "El Bosque" (which means "The Forest")) and two days later, there I was.... prepared for a really poor movie...
...but this is the best crafted movie by Shyamalan. From the technical perspective, camera use, photography, music, everything is absolutely perfect. The slow motion of the movie is something I really appreciate in this times of mindless-fast-pace-stupid-movies... so for the first 15 minutes I was just amazed with the photography, music, and the almost fairytale mood of the movie.
Then it goes better and better, as everyone realizes the truth behind the village. I think the important part is not the typical signature final surprise of the movie (every Shyamalan movie has a final trick). In this case the real chilling comes much sooner the end of the movie.
To get the real beauty of this film you have to dig deep in the story. Lots of similar things are happening just in your world today so it's amazing how MNS "translated" the essence of contemporary problems (specially in the USA and their current politicians) to a fairy tale kind of story.
I also like the almost independent European style of the film... the way every scene has been shot.
The bad point is the advertising campaign in Spain.... in the trailer it seems you're going to see a really scary terror movie. Of course this was not the intention of the director, but the only rule of distributors is to earn more and more money, and everything is valid for them. That means lots of disappointed people at the end of the movie...
Happily (for me), the movie was not what I was expecting, it's much more beautiful!!!!!!!.
Well done Mr. Shyamalan. Keep this way, pleeeeease!!!!.
9/10.
Rafa!