WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! Who Are THE VILLAGE's True Monsters?

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2004)

THE VILLAGE is flawed, but better than it gets credit for. People were probably disappointed because the film was sold as a thriller when it's a mood piece about how fear and paranoia impact a community, a timely theme in our post 9/11 world. Instead of misrepresenting THE VILLAGE as a twisty shocker a la THE SIXTH SENSE, the marketing department should've tried another approach: "M. Night Shyamalan as you've never seen him before!" :-)
Unlike MNS's previous films, it's easier to see through this story about the citizens of Covington Woods, an 1890s-style farm community, who won't venture beyond their village's borders because of their uneasy "truce" with the "creatures" outside, including jettisoning anything colored red, the "bad color" that purportedly attracts these creatures. The narrative transparency causes the dreamlike effect of MNS's usual leisurely pace to peter out too soon. Fortunately, the stellar cast, beautiful Pennsylvania scenery, and eerie atmosphere held my attention. Former co-stars William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver reunite as village elders Edward Walker and Alice Hunt; for once Hurt's slightly dazed soft-spokenness suits his character! :-) Joaquin Phoenix, re-teaming with his SIGNS director, radiates quiet strength and intensity as Lucius Hunt, who tries to cross the village borders into "the towns" for medicine to combat the community's recent rash of illnesses and deaths. Phoenix is well-matched by Bryce Dallas Howard, lovely and endearing in her film debut as Walker's blind daughter Ivy. I liked Ivy's subtle boldness as she saves the day after the guys who accompany her to the village borders chicken out. No surprise that Adrien Brody signed on for the role of mentally-challenged Noah Percy (or as his character has been dubbed by smart-alecks, "the VILLAGE idiot") as his first post-Oscar role. It gave him an opportunity to work with a hot director (turning MNS down at this point in his career would've been like turning down Alfred Hitchcock in the 1940s and '50s), and most actors can't resist playing handicapped characters. Brody did a fine job with a role more complex than it first seems. In Brody's able hands, overgrown child Noah simultaneously breaks your heart, makes you laugh, and creeps you out. His behavior reminded me of autistic/ADHD children I've known, so I was particularly moved when Lucius wonders if "the towns" might have medicines to help Noah "sit still and learn." (Seeing Brody in 1890s-style clothing got me thinking how great he'd be as Ichabod Crane if somebody films ...SLEEPY HOLLOW again!) The finest moment in Brody's performance comes after Lucius and Ivy's engagement is announced. Up until this point, Lucius, Ivy, and Noah have been a trio, with Noah responding affectionately to Ivy's kindness. That changes forever after the engagement, when Noah turns up on Lucius' doorstep with grief in his heart, tears in his eyes -- and a knife in his hand. After the attack, Noah's parents find him rocking agitatedly on the porch, frightened of "the bad color" on his bloodstained hands. When Ivy finds out, she confronts Noah, who holds his arms out to her, clearly sorry and hoping for forgiveness, only to have Ivy start shrieking and hitting him until she's dragged off him. Although what Noah did was horribly, unforgivably wrong, his howls of anguish and wrenching sobs almost brought me to tears. (I'd love to see Brody's and Howard's performances get award nominations!) When Lucius' wounds become infected, Ivy must trek to "the towns" to get medicine. Here's where the twist (and the *SPOILER*) comes in: Walker gives his daughter what turns out to be a prescription, and the foreshadowing (particularly various Villagers' revelations of losing loved ones violently in "the towns" in their pre-Village lives) pays off. Our villagers *don't* live in the 1890s. The time is now...the village is a sanctuary from today's world, created by the town elders to raise their children away from the tragedy and heartbreak of their former modern city lives...the creatures were fabricated to keep the young people in line and in the dark, with various townspeople -- including Noah in mischievous-child mode -- donning creature costumes and skinning small animals periodically to scare everybody. And Walker masterminded it all! A history teacher from a powerful family, Walker used his inherited wealth to establish this quasi-Brigadoon in an isolated area of the Walker family's game preserve, with the adults conspiring to keep the village going with various deceptions. I liked the idea that Walker's rich enough to pull this off, with the preserve personnel on board with the ruse (when the young ranger Ivy meets outside the game preserve realizes she's a Walker, he quickly agrees to help her); I'm all for the idea of living in one's own little homemade world! :-) But why the hell would supposedly intelligent modern people like Walker & Company set their new community in an ersatz 1890s (even the gravestones list 1890s dates!), a time without *antibiotics?!* The film begins at the funeral of a little boy who, it's made clear, is one of several children who died of illnesses that could've been cured with the right medicine. I can't believe Walker and the town doctor didn't take precautions to have modern meds available just in case, to say nothing of medicine/treatments that might have helped poor mentally-stunted Noah and maybe even Ivy's blindness! It's unconscionable that, however well-meant Walker's power trip is, he and the others would let their children die or be damaged for life rather than go into "the towns" for help, even if it means their elaborate ruse might collapse around them! (Amish people come to cities for supplies or trade in real life, so why couldn't Walker and the villagers do the same?) THE VILLAGE would've been more compelling had the script delved deeper into that aspect of it, with the secrets, lies, and power the elders have, but at such a terrible cost. Then MNS might have had a future classic on his hands, not just the cinematic equivalent of a nice try.