Intelligent and deserving of credit!

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2004)

Shyamalan really found the right combination with Deakins behind the camera and James Newton Howard composing. The music and cinematography was just a perfect mix for me. The shots were simple and non-intrusive, yet still said so much. You can see that most every frame was narrow and tight, sort of capturing the constricted views of the village, in a way. Deakins' "Shawshank-ian" techniques really came through in that aspect. I loved that shot that panned out to the wide open, foggy landscape when Lucius and Ivy first kissed, almost showing how they had sort of transcended the confines of the village for a bit. As for the score, Hahn's violin parts were perfect. It reminded me of Zimmer's eerie cello composition from The Ring, only with a twist of romance.
As for the acting, I really think this could have been Adrien Brody's best performance, to date (rivaling The Pianist). To me, he was quite possibly the most horrifyingly innocent character in any movie i've seen. The only thing he was missing was an M-16 and an angry drill sargeant. Bryce Dallas Howard's character was so persistent and passionate and Joaquin Phoenix's character was such a great compliment (it is very interesting to see, in the movie, how a blind person and a practically mute person can be so perfect for each other). These three characters lended to an interesting See No Evil (Ivy), Hear No Evil (Noah), Speak No Evil (Lucius) dynamic in the movie.
The color said a lot, as well. The shunning of "red" seemed to satire the "Red Scare" days of American politics. Other colors just came alive in their own artistic way, coating the characters and painting the set. Shyamalan also made sure to insert his usual political/social commentary in there in other ways, though I can't decide if it was with more or less tact this time around. Either way, Orwell certainly provided some inspiration.
Call me a sucker for off-beat romantic thriller's, but I have to give this movie a 10. Maybe it was the dark, vintange 1920's movie theater I saw it in that did it for me. Maybe it was that damn slo-motion sequence, I don't know. Overall, it just killed.