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Without the twist there is nothing else to really get into and it is boring and false (this review contains major spoilers for this film and Dark City), 9 settembre 2004
Author: bob the moo da Birmingham, UK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In the late 19th century a small village lives peacefully in a valley surrounded by woods. The only threat to this peace is those who are not spoken of – a race of strange beast men who live in the woods. Over the years, a truce has developed between the two races where each will stay in their own area. However when skinned animals start to turn up within the boundary, and markings appear on the buildings show that the others appear to be breaking the truce for some reason. Meanwhile, with the death of one of the villagers, Lucius Hunt appeals to the elders to allow him to go to the town to collect medicines – however the elders want the village to continue to be protected from the town.

Shyamalan's recent films have tended to divide opinion pretty successfully – with Unbreakable and Signs bringing both praise and derision in pretty equal measure. For the record, I quite liked both of these films but I left the cinema bored and frustrated with a film that offers very little aside from the main twist. The film suggests several narratives but none of them go anywhere but to the twist. The script is full of well-observed detail of the period and lots of character interactions but these are all for nothing because the film is only using them to fill and distract. For this reason the film drags quite a bit and feels a lot longer than it is – time spent on stilted, nervous romances is boring because we suspect (and later know) that they are only being used rather than being intimate background to the main story. With 6th Sense, Signs and Unbreakable I didn't feel that the twist was the whole ballgame – there was a story being told and the twist was the conclusion to it. With The Village I didn't feel the twist was a conclusion to the story – just a conclusion to a premise. In fact the twist can be seen coming and, even if it isn't obvious to you, it is delivered so flatly that it loses its impact – contrast it to the twist in Dark City, it could not have been weaker.

Of course, the whole idea is good and it is interesting if you are talking about it – but not if it is stretched out over 2 hours. I watch a great many short films and, trust me, The Village is a short film – albeit a long short film that could run between 30 minutes and an hour. Shyamalan has come up with another premise that gives him his twist but has no substance to it. He adds substance the best he can but he knows that the twist is all and he only adds the substance that he needs to get there. I found this frustrating and rather boring; the characters were thin and only the beasts offer interest (and I suppose at least produce one or two jumps) but again they are nothing more than filler really, part of the twist to the premise – certainly they are not the focal point that the marketing and majority of the film would have you believe. No, they are removed from the film in one quick moment and are only brought back in the form of Noah in order to raise the tempo again and to keep the audience guessing about the twist that they know must be coming; sure, it is a scary moment but it is as fake as the village itself.

Despite his failings as writer here, director Shyamalan and his cinematographer do well here and produce a film that looks great and manages to produce some images that are memorable and effective. The village looks great, the forest looks innocent but daunting while the beasts are fleeting and had potential. The use of strong colours is particularly effective thanks to the look of the film – so much of it is washed out that the reds do actually look bad and too strong to really fit in. However this is little consolation to the many of us who will have struggled through what was essentially filler in order to get to a rather unsatisfying twist. I'll accept that it works better when you think about it and that the premise is interesting but as a film it needs to work and it simply doesn't.

The cast try hard but, with few characters to go around, many of them struggle – I think that it must have been apparent to them that they are only part of a loose premise to facilitate a twist, they are not meant to do anything other than get the film to the twist. Certainly Phoenix knows this. His performance is fitting to the slow tone of the film and he tries hard but he is betrayed and left with nothing to do. Howard steals the film. Her actions may grate as they seem so very unlikely but her actual performance is very good and she makes a good heart of the film once she is moved into that position in the second half. Brody is OK but is just a plot device to get to the twist. Hurt is strong and delivers well, but people like Weaver and Gleeson really deserve better; they have nothing to do and what little material they have to work with (eg Weaver and Hurt's affection) is only out there to fill and distract – as the twist approaches it is simply forgotten about as if it never mattered, which, I suppose, it never really did.

Overall this is not a bad film – just a badly delivered one. The premise is OK but, as others have said, it is a Twilight Zone episode or a short film. Stretched to two hours means that filler is put in, red herrings are thrown in, characters are partially developed but only to fill the gap not as part of writing a good script. Given that the whole point of this film is the twist, I was surprised how very limp it was – at least Shyamalan had the guts to appear on screen himself (as the ranger) to try and justify some of the logic! But it is weak and, although it looks great and had potential, it all amounts to nothing and, unlike his other films that had substance and a twist, The Village has only a premise and then a twist – there is no substance of value here and many viewers will find themselves bored and annoyed.

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