Good atmospheric thriller

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2015)

Greetings from Lithuania.
"The Village" (2004) was probably the last good movie from M. Night Shyamalan, after near masterpiece "The Sixth Sense", and terrific movies "Unbreakable" and "Signs". It is not as good as those three movies, but it's a damn good atmospheric / drama thriller with some twists along the way. There are couple of twists in this movie, and watching this movie back in 2004 in cinema (i was a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan at that moment) i was hugely disappointed by first twist, but the second (and last) was amazing - didn't see that coming for sure.
Acting is good in this movie, with Bryce Dallas Howard best performance (period) and strong supportive acting by the great Joaquin Phoenix. The whole cast is great in here, and although not everyone received opportunity to shine, they all did a pretty good job in my opinion. Direting is good, but movie drags a bit there and there mainly because of script - it is good but inconsistent.
The best part of this movie is in its atmosphere, which is created beautifully here (superb sound design (picture has to be seen with the best possible sound system) and good cinematography). There are some great suspenseful scenes as well - kudos to great direction in those scenes.
Overall, "The Village" has problems with pacing, but overall experience is very positive. It's best parts are not in conversations (which drags a bit due to script), but in overall mood and some great suspenseful scenes as well as feeling that something isn't right in here and question "who or what is behind this all". When all questions will be answered, some of them are very disappointing, but most of them will force you re-think and probably re-watch this movie twice - and it is worth seeing it more than once (but two times will be definitely enough).