What a shame !

Rating: 1/10 (19 August 2004)

This movie is simply awful. I just don't get it : how could such a great director do such a lame movie ? I had guessed the whole plot and the so called shocking ending just two minutes after the movie had begun. Plus, this is absolutely not scary at all. I know Shyamalan says everywhere that he didn't plan to make a scary movie but a love story, but the thing is, when your whole marketing campaign is based on the "horror of the unseen", that's a pretty lame argument and an awful way to fool the audience. And I'm sorry to say, the love story, as it is, is a sad bore. We've been told this kind of love story a thousand times, and most of the time it was better than this. Now, the acting : Adrien Brody is not going to prove he deserved his best actor Oscar with THAT. He's completely ridiculous in a role that's, sadly, completely pointless and was probably written to fill all the holes in the screenplay. Poor Joaquin Phoenix has not much to do and he disappears in the middle of the movie (maybe he begged the director for that ? "Please, write me off this movie !!!"). Sigourney Weaver is non existent. The only good thing of "The Village" is the luminous Bryce Dallas Howard. You can say she's going to have a great career just for being able to go through this whole movie with dignity and grace. Now, Shyamalan, enough with so called twisty endings and pseudo thrillers that scare no one. Even Steven Spielberg knew that the miracle that "Jaws" was could not be made twice. So stop doing "The Sixth Sense" all over again and try something new !