Beautiful implausibility

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2005)

I enjoyed this movie a lot, and I'm sure most people will. Forget the fact that Shyamalan's movies famously have a twist (anyway this has two, albeit one is fairly obvious), otherwise you may be disappointed. You must take this movie on its own merits, not as a Shymalan work, then it has a lot to be commended. The cast is pretty impressive: nice to see William Hurt playing a lead character again, ably supported by Sigourney Weaver, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, and others. However the undoubted star is Bryce Dallas Howard. In the early scenes, she doesn't impress very much with her "blindness" - she focuses on people too obviously - but this improves as the movie runs. Apart from this however, I think she plays the part beautifully. She is luminous in most shots, and holds your attention constantly. She should be a major star soon on the basis of this performance.
The landscapes are framed and shot as you would expect from this director, with clever use of colour and especially shadow. I didn't spot a single anomaly in the settings, and the soundtrack also fits well.
So what's the implausibility? *** SPOILER FOLLOWS *** A community like this would simply not be possible - OK, we don't know until the last part that we're in the present day, but even one hundred years ago, I'm sure that such a place would have had visitors.
Anyway, you should suspend disbelief and enjoy all the good things; Ms. Howard in particular.