A load of rubbish

Rating: Null/10 (1 September 2004)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
A group of village dwellers in the late 1800s live across the field from 'those things of which we don't speak.'However,some of the dwellers feel mysteriously compelled to summon these things,and it is from here that the hard reality of their lives begins to eerily creep through.
Following on from the excellent Signs and The Sixth Sense and the perfectly watchable Unbreakable,writer/director M Night Shyamalan has now added a new film to his CV which doesn't even match the quality of the latter film and most certainly doesn't patch up to the first two.
Considering big name stars like Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson head-billed his last two films,this is a comparatively no name affair,featuring stars that either may have reached the peak but not quite the pinnacle of their careers (Joaquin Phoenix,Adrien Brody) or those who have been out the limelight for far too long for their star power to retain any value (Sigourney Weaver,William Hurt).I actually thought it looked more like a new TV series the first time I saw it and even then it would just be something Shyamalan would just sort of lend his name to.And the damn thing is,despite the fact that they're all moreorless perfectly fine actors (Weaver won an Oscar,for God's sake!) they all seem to turn in really terrible performances here.Even the more experienced cast members feel wooden,unconvincing and terribly,terribly forced.It wouldn't really be fair to single a single one of them out,because they're all the same,but it would be fair to mention that Brody is the only one who really stands out,turning in a fairly good performance as a mentally challenged young man.As previous efforts have shown,this is a guy with seriously good talent as a dramatic actor and,if he keeps picking the right roles,or,even if he turns in good performances in bad films,has a seriously good future ahead of him in Hollywood and if he keeps turning in good performances,how can he go wrong?...
Mind you,maybe it's the source material that's weighing them down (hey,anyone see Dennis Quaid around here?)With a story that emerges as unengaging and not particularly interesting,maybe they're having as much fun trawling the script out as we are sitting watching it.
As for the film managing to be scary,it's very weird,because although I could see the scary scenes coming from about a mile away,they still managed to make me jump for some reason.But maybe I'm just a sensitive sort of guy.
Shyamalan's standard twist comes at the end,although it's truly baffling.I certainly couldn't make any sense of it.But then,maybe I couldn't pay close enough attention to it to be able to.As with all Shyamalan's films up to this point,this is certainly a case of intriguing concept.It's just one that really fails to pay off.*