The Village



I think M. Night Shyamalan is rapidly becoming a victim of his own reputation. So much attention seems to have been paid to the twist ending of The Village that you could be forgiven for wondering if there's anything else to the movie. Because nearly everyone goes into his films expected a twist it's going to be nearly impossible to fool any halfway attentive viewers. It's not that tough to figure out more or less what's really going on in The Village pretty early on, but I don't think that's all that detrimental to the film.


Yellow is the new black.

The setting is a 19th century village of Covington in rural Pennsylvania. By the choice of the village elders, including Edward Walker (William Hurt), Covington is completely cut off from the outside world. The village is also surrounded by woods stalked by mysterious creatures that are attracted by the color red. That color has been banished from the village, and the border of the woods is lit and watched over every night should the creatures decide to breach the border. After a young friend of his dies, Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) wants to leave the village to get more modern medicine from the outside world. Meanwhile the creatures seem to be violating the borders, killing and skinning animals, and even approaching houses at night and leaving marks of red paint. After a surprising act of violence (perhaps the first the town has ever experienced) acquiring new medicine becomes a priority, and Walker's blind daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) in sent into the woods to make contact with "the towns."


To grandmother's house we go!

There is an interesting idea at the center of the The Village, which is really a study of whether two wrongs can make a right. What The Village is not, and I think this will probably hurt it's box office, is particularly scary. The movie is more of a character study, and well acted, but the trailers do a terrific job selling it as scary movie. I think this will probably mean a lot of theatergoers will not be seeing the movie they expect to see.

Posted: Sun - August 1, 2004 at      

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