Good concept but poor execution.

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2004)

Shymalan's movies are gradually going down in quality from Sixth Sense to The Village in that order. Sure the man got talent but I guess he is getting overconfident about his subjects and treatment and underestimating the audience. Well then you have a cost to pay and the cost is "The Village".

Although the plotting is almost similiar to "Sixth Sense", I like the concept of the movie (Which I won't describe). It metaphorically connects at multiple levels from Parents protecting their kids to terrorism threat to America to social segregation to ethnic segregation. The rich concept loses the battle to terror and twist ending, the signature of shymalan movies.
The movie does scare in couple of places but overrall it does not fit into the narrative. The only character I was able to connect to was Bryce howard Dallas. She did a fantastic job. Gentlemen a star is born, no doubt. Adrien brody is good in patches and Joaquin Phoenix has nothing to play.

In general the movie does not fit into horror or drama or thriller, it just makes a hash of all these and mess it up badly.