The Village

The Village sucks. Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has hit the wall. The man whose quiet little movie, The Sixth Sense, left all of us with our jaws hanging open, has come up with a snoozer that will leave a lot of us trying to find a way to travel back in time to recover the 108 precious minutes he stole from our lives.

I was more than fair with the production. After learning the “twist,” which in this case is barely even a crimp, I decided to watch the movie a second time, to see if the story might work on some other level when viewed as a drama rather than a suspense film.

It does not. The Village is flat, dull, grim and terribly obvious. The extremely talented cast has little to do and the James Newton Howard score gets gooey. The sets look great and the cinematography is strong, though. As for any visualization of things otherworldy, congratulations should go to the first graders who clearly designed what we see. Keep up the good work, kids, and perhaps, in a year or two, you’ll be ready for the school play.

The story is set in bucolic 19th Century town surrounded on all sides by open land, which is surrounded on all sides by a forest. The villagers are simple, God-fearing souls who refer despairingly to the outside world as “the towns.” No one leaves the village, you see. To do so would mean entering the woods, where the creatures live. The villagers have a truce that requires that they never display anything red. Despite the deal, they hedge their bets by using large torches to light the perimeters at night and keeping a tower watchman on duty always.

Shortly after the death of a town elder (Brendan Gleeson), the usually sullen Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) volunteer to venture out for emergency supplies. Council Head Edward Walker (William Hurt) rejects the idea, which is a relief for Lucius’ mother (Sigourney Weaver). Meanwhile, Edward’s young blind daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard’s daughter) comes on the Lucius, while Noah (Adrien Brody), the village simpleton, acts a fool.

Then things start to happen. Red marks appear on village doors and animals turn skinned but not eaten.

Clearly, a twist is on the way.

Two final annoyances. First, William Hurt’s method… of… speech… makes… his… scenes… seem… even… slower than the other ones in the movie. Second, the people in the movie do not use contractions. Allow me to try one. Don’t go to The Village.