Too big a Clue, Too Soon, but liked it anyway.

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2007)

I liked The Village. But, I have to say that I encountered a logistical problem, about five minutes into the movie. It was when the village folk sat down to their long tables, for their meal, or feast. They had some vague "blessing". There was no mention of their God, in an exact form, ie. "Lord", "Jesus Christ", "Jehovah", whatever. And, they were all dressed like Amish, so that lead one to believe that these were religious folk. Well, religious folk from long ago, had a specific God, and still do (Amish). They have some kind of semi-formal ritual, or custom, at the table, not just some California free for all approach. So, the question that came to me was: would this director be so negligent as to think that some liberal "universal force" would pass as religion to his audience? Of people dressed like this? I suspected that M. Night was a pretty smart guy, so NO he would not try to pull that off with his audience, as it would be too lame and obvious. So, then, that lead me to think: if the director is not trying to pull that off, and he WANTS us to see that these folk are DRESSED like pilgrims, but are actually NOT pilgrims (and I did assume it was earth), then that means that these folks are not who they are pretending to be, and I bet that this is modern day. It was as obvious as some banana sitting there with "Dole" marked on it.
Then, I was proved right. And, I was disappointed because I had figured out a main clue of the movie, and it was because of something simple thing like that.
I think the movie was marketed all wrong. So early in the movie, when the "truth" is revealed, that it is modern day and it's all a scheme to fool the kids, I felt the audience, collectively, sigh in disappointment. Too bad!! Because a) the story was cool, and b) the scenery was beautiful! and c) the characters were great, and J. Phoenix is very sexy, and the love story was good. I liked the movie overall, but the marketing of it, as some horror movie, destroyed it for many people. The Sixth Sense is one of my favorite films, and I also loved "Unbreakable", and "Signs"! This movie would have been good, if it had been marketed as a drama, not a scary movie. It did have it's scary parts! And the monsters were very cool.
It also had me thinking that, these people had a bit of balls. I mean, to leave society and lie to your children, BIG time. All for the sake of making a better world for yourself, and your children. If these people had that kind of chutzpah, couldn't they have done something a little bit more reasonable, such as some vigilante thing, in their old world? Maybe killed the killers, or banded together to build some urban trap, to kill murderers and child molesters and rapists? Why did they just give up, and 86 their world? I liked the premise of the movie, though. And, I liked how the wife of William Hurt, reminds him very strongly of his oath, stressing "oath", actually reminding him of his oath to something more than just the village. It's a fun movie, and I recommend it.