Thought - Provoking

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2005)

The "Village" is a highly interesting and thought-provoking film. Well-directed by M.N. Shyamalan, the story unfolds in what seems a common 19th century small village in the middle of a forest. This village however is different: As we learn early in the film, it is surrounded by mysterious creatures (having the apt moniker "Those We Don't Speak Of"), who terrorize the villagers; the latter have come up with some sort of a pact with "Those We Don't Speak Of", so that neither crosses each other's borders. In effect, the villagers are hence incarcerated, and we watch their strange life as they are cut out from the outer world.
The movie studies mainly three main characters: Luscious Hunt, played well by Phoenix, a boy who talks little but is gentle and noble in his acts. Ivy Walker, a role which Bryce Howard does a great job in portraying, is a blind girl who is in love with Luscious, and displays a great deal of courage despite her disability. Finally, Noah Percy is a mentally retarded boy, who plays a key role in the sequence of events; Brody performs a very good act here.
*** SPOILERS ***
What raises the heat in the film, is the following: When Noah attacks and seriously injures Luscious due to his jealousy for Ivy's heart, the shattered girl asks for permission to go to the nearest town to get medicines and save her lover's life. Although her request should normally be denied, as it will violate the pact with the creatures, her father gives in, and without informing the other ruling "Elders", he tells her the Village's great secret: Namely, that in fact everything (the Village, the creatures, and the whole setting) have simply been fabricated by him and his fellow "Elders", as a way to escape the 21st century civilization.
The reason is that all of them have suffered from crime and violence in the normal world, and so they created this habitat in the middle of a wildlife preservation (owned or sponsored by Ivy's father), so as to create a totally new society. They then invented the scary story about "Those We Don't Speak Of", so that their children would be permanently banned from being inoculated with the "ills" of the outer world. Ivy finally goes outside, although she is both blind and totally unprepared for the environment of 21st century life; she is simply lucky to find a guard who sympathizes with her, offers her the medicines, and helps her to get back. In her heroic journey, she gets attacked by Noah dressed in a creature suit, but manages to kill him. The film ends with Ivy giving the medicines to her lover, while the "Elders" consider Noah's death (whom everyone bar them believes it was a wild creature), as the fact that will now make their story fully bullet-proof, and therefore their "Village" will be able to incarcerate its villagers indefinitely.
I have found the movie incredibly thought-provoking. It is interesting how these people decided to fight society's ills (from which all have suffered, by losing friends and relatives from crime), by creating an even bigger one: They took the fatal decision of creating this isolated Village-Prison, in which they watched their children suffer and die from illnesses and disabilities, while they were unwilling to provide them any professional help or treatment from the outer world just because they wanted to preserve their fabrication. Moreover, they preferred to have everyone live in a big lie, rather than go to the real world (no matter how difficult that would be) and face it. They stuck to this until the very end, determined to pursue the wicked goal at any cost.
A story that makes you pause and think. 9/10.