The Village
After The Sixth Sense, The Unbreakable and The Signs comes another offering by M Night Shyamalan, The Village.
One common string that runs through all of these movies (other than the suspense factor) is the fact that they all start with ?The?. OK, that was a poor attempt at a really pathetic joke on a stupid resemblance.
Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix Lucius
Bryce Howard Ivy
Adrian Brody Noah
William Hurt Edward
Sigourney Weaver Alice
The setting for this movie is a 19th-century Pennsylvania hamlet. Adjoining their village and the villagers believe that there are certain evil inhabitants that live in that forest. The elders inform that an earlier agreement with those creatures ensures that they do not enter the village as long as any of the villagers do not enter the woods.
They have the following rules:
1) Let the bad color (red) not be seen. It attracts them.
2) Never enter the woods. That is where they wait.
3) Heed the warning bell, for they are coming
The death of one of the village boys due to certain illness instigates a desire in the minds of Lucius to go beyond the forest into the town, so that he can get medicines for the village and also for one of his friends, who is mentally deranged.
This request is, naturally, shot down. But that does not stop Lucius from taking a few steps into the forest. A few steps and he is back. But that does not stop the creatures form taking view of him. That night the village is invaded by the creatures. Weird, skeletal, croaky voiced creatures.
All the villagers hide themselves in their personal bunkers or hiding places. In the morning they find their doors painted with a RED STRIPE. What is the meaning of this red stripe? Has the truce been broken?
In the midst of this Lucius gets stabbed, and his survival depends on medicines which can be got only in the town beyond the forest.
I will stop my narration right here, because this is where the suspense unfolds.
The movie begins off quite well with a spooky setting. But as usual is very slow in proceeding. The suspense becomes all too guessable, but there is still another small twist in the suspense.
Performance wise, Joaquin Phoenix does well in his role. Bryce Howard in her role as the blind girl is superb. Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Howard possessed the screen via the wonderful chemistry that they shared. Their gripping bond was the anchor to this story. Adrian Brody as Noah, the village idiot did his role of an idiot like an idiot. That is he did it quite well.
A good movie in the end, but not a movie that can be anywhere close to the masterpiece that The Sixth Sense was.
As put forth by another review I read on the Internet,
?Is this his best work? No. It’s not the best film I’ve seen on this theme, either. But it is a good film. Very good, just remember not to check your brain at the door on your way into the theater?
Bubba
Themovieblog.com’’
Comments and criticisms welcome
Arun