Thank God I went to the Cheaper Matinée!

Rating: 2/10 (30 July 2004)

I am sad to say that my expectations have, in no way, been met. It seems that M. Night Shyamalan has finally gone out of his mind, thinking that this movie, with its thin plot line, terrible dialogue, and pathetic twist ending, for which he has become so famous, could pass as a decent addition to the "suspense thriller" genre.
There is, however, a silver lining to this soggy feature, and that is the performances of Bryce Dallas Howard and Adrien Brodie. Howard, with this performance, has proven herself a more-than-capable actress, and really carried the film. She seemed to be the only one who was able to take the bland dialogue and convert it into something a bit more real. We can surely expect to see her in some great roles after this film, and maybe even around Oscar time. Brodie, as the seemingly gentle mentally handicapped person in the village, gives his best performance since "The Pianist," which isn't saying much given "The Singing Detective" and "Dummy." William Hurt, as one of the village elders, gave a less-than-stellar performance, speaking as if he were in an episode of Star Trek. Joaquin Phoenix, one of my favorite actors, is underused and is given a very flat character. Finally, the great indie God that is Michael Pitt hardly has a part, and the one he does have is not worth his time. He should pick better roles than this, especially if he wants to become mainstream.
As for the plot of "The Village," M. Night needs to be dragged out back and shot. It lacked completely in character and creativity. He needs to learn that he cannot base all of his movies on a decent plot twist or, in this case, a terrible plot twist that you saw coming at the beginning of the movie. Perhaps the great Shyamalan needs to take a creative writing class and get some of those juices flowing again.
All-in-all, "The Village ranks as M. Night's worst venture into the genre thus far. Let's hope he can make a recovery back to the golden days of "The Sixth Sense" and the widely under-appreciated "Unbreakable." At least he has the sense to surround himself with good actors. 2 out of 10, and that is being generous.