The most stupid and absurd film ever made?

Rating: 2/10 (14 December 2004)

Can I start by conveying my absolute disbelief that this film scored as highly as 6.5 on IMDb?
The Village is the latest offering from M Night Shyamalan, and I began viewing with tredipation such is the downward spiral of his career. Sixth Sense was magnificent, Unbreakable was quirky and passable, Signs was brilliantly directed but ultimately its ending ruined it, and now this.
The Village is set around the 18th century and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius, a young and reserved man living in a small town. The town has a chequered past, in that there is a serious and dangerous rivalry between it and another village which mirrors it on the opposite side of a large forest which separates both. There is a tense 'ceasefire' between the villages so peace seems to be present. Indeed, in the forest itself there are dangers so the villagers *never* go in. There is also a colour code too - red represents the danger of the forest, and is forbidden in the village.
However, when it seems that the truce between the 2 villages has been broken, the walls of civilization apparently begin to crack, and chaos starts to dominate life in the village.
To say any more could spoil the story, so the summation will halt there.
There is a good cast here; Phoenix, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Adrien Brody make up a very strong group of actors. You are given at least decent performances by them all, but Weaver and Brody are both criminally underused and woefully miscast. Brody was the pianist for goodness sake and he's been reduced to a minor Forrest Gump-style character in this. Why on earth did he accept such a poor role? Weaver also deserves better. Little more than a peripheral character, Lucius' mother, she's truly Hollywood royalty and such a small part to play is a complete waste of her time.
Phoenix is the main character along with the relatively unheard of Bryce Dallas Howard as the blind Ivy, daughter of William Hurt's Walker, and all 3 of the above are given fairly meaty roles, particularly Hurt who's by far the best thing about the Village. Howard is slightly melodramatic and sentimental, and Phoenix isn't sympathetic enough, though reasonable, as the almost autistic Lucius.
Outside of the basic flaws which I'll get to later, The Village suffers pretty feeble direction. Signs was far better, and almost an exercise in how to direct a thriller. The Village, on the other hand, seems to bore with its direction, and completely lacks interest.
However, the main gripe is simply the ridiculousness of it all. This is an unbelievably contrived film, which simply defies sensibilities and makes up its own rules. Being different can be good, but doing it for the sake of is really not. This film at times feels like a 15 year old is just making it up on the spot.
The ending is simply vacuous and not clever at all. There is no way I can bring myself to say 'ah, so *that's* why it's been ridiculous, oh, well that's really smart then'. Believe me, I've tried.
Overall this is a silly and futile film which is partially saved by Hurt, but its stupidities cost it dearly.
Avoid.