A theatrical buzzkill.

Rating: 4/10 (31 July 2004)

Ah, the all American summer movie. It is part of what makes this time of the year have the atmosphere that it does. Go to the theaters for fun, thrills, chills, and spills(?). But wow does it suck when you come across one that is a real killjoy. For those headed to your local cinema this weekend (July 30th  August 1st), chance are you went to go see THE VILLAGE, and was meant with the buzz kill of your summer-movie going experiences. Not all, mind you, but most.
M. Night Shyamalan has made quite the name for himself coming to Hollywood with his first acclaimed film, the infamous SIXTH SENSE. Since then people will claim that his talent has decreased or that he has tried to hard, but I feel none are true as such accusations prove only opinion. SIGNS is often very maligned by others but I actually find it to be my favorite of M.'s films, so it is all a matter a choice. But I feel that when a movie is weak in comparison to past works, then it is weak and this was weak. And is also part of a strange dilemma that only Shyamalan could get into because of his talent as a writer and a director which is still apparently strong in his worse outing at the time of writing this.
Slow, plodding, but rarely uninteresting you grow quite attached to the village and the villagers themselves, and deciding on the title of the movie is better fitted in its final form as 'The Woods' sets up a bit of different expectation. Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix), Ivy (Bryce Howard) and Noah (Adrien Brody) are the pivots in which this story turns and all are wonderfully developed. Secondary characters seem to get the proverbial shaft though as this is one of the largest casts M. Night has worked with thus far. Alice Hunt (Sigourney Weaver) and Edward Walker (William Hurt) were the only others of real interest and while you got the gist of what they were as folk in this town, there was no proper time to get to them like the many variety of characters Shyamalan has given us before. This especially sucks for me because I am a huge fan of Sigourney Weaver from her ALIEN days up through HEARTBRAKERS and HOLES.
But no matter the actors, no matter how visionary the director is or the writing, when a story is left in a jumble there is nothing to save it. And a jumble this is. Things felt forced at times and at others felt truly ludicrous. I will not post any spoilers, but a rule of film in my opinion is to never just tell what is going on show it, let the audience think and have it unraveled in their minds instead of a character coming forth and saying flat out what the twist or trick is When this point comes in the movie, the rest is ruined in its wake because it was just too important of a detail. A detail in which this entire movie rides on since the beginning and ruins it in the end.
I rate this movie a 4.5 out of 10. Still far from hating it, but even farther from loving it.