Posted July 30, 2004.
"The Village" 2 stars Touchstone Pictures PG-13, 120 m with Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard and Adrien Brody. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
The audience laughed a lot during M. Night Shyamalan's new film, "The Village," released July 30. Whether Shyamalan intended for his movie about creatures threatening an innocent village to be so laughable is another question.
The film opens on a small village in very rural Pennsylvania. The families dine together at long outdoor tables, which call to mind images of Pilgrims and turkeys, and the villagers seem to enjoy their simple duties. And so an idyllic picture of late 1800s life is painted.
Yet the panic with which these wholesome folk react to "the bad color" and the worried looks on their faces when howls come from the woods, quickly put audiences in a tense position. References to "Those We Don't Speak Of" and the gruesome warning signs these creatures leave add to viewers' curiosity and uneasiness.
However, the dialogue in the first half of the film lacks so much that even the star-studded cast can't pull off some of the lines. Also, the manner of speech is somewhat inconsistent. One line is something like, "Forgive me, I but worry for my son," when the next is spoken with a terribly familiar and present American ring to it.
Still, the actors perform well, particularly relative newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, playing the main heroin, the blind, but intuitive Ivy Walker. Shyamalan cast the 23-year-old without an audition after seeing her perform on Broadway. Howard starts opposite Joaquin Phoenix ("Signs," "Gladiator"), who plays her love interest and also the most brave, intense and curious man in the village, Lucius Hunt.
Adrien Brody, Best Actor Academy Award winner for 2002's "The Pianist," offers decent support playing Noah Percy, "The Village" idiot, if you will. While William Hurt does a great job playing Ivy's father and town leader, Edward Walker. Hurt, who won a Best Actor Academy Award for "Kiss of the Spider Woman" in 1986, has gone without many awards since. "The Village" will not stop this streak. Sigourney Weaver (the "Alien" series, "Working Girl"), a favorite of science fiction fans, plays a relatively small role as Lucius's mother, Alice. Judy Greer ("13 Going on 30," "The Wedding Planner") remains consistent in her performances as a bit flaky and flimsy, as Ivy's sister Kitty, though this is probably the most serious role audiences have seen her play.
As expected, Shyamalan does offer a plot twist, but perhaps less expected is that there's more than one. While many may find the twists a bit disappointing, not as many will predict them. Regardless, Shyamalan's plot does encourage viewers to think about fear and civilization, which is rather topical.
Also, as ridiculous as some of the dialogue is and the creatures appear, Shyamalan does keep audiences engaged with a little suspense. Those who don't like scary movies may not venture into the woods for a few days, while seasoned horror film fans will be utterly disappointed in "The Village." Certainly, no one should go into it expecting the brilliance of Shyamalan's critically acclaimed 1999 hit, "The Sixth Sense"
