VILLAGE

http://ae.miami.com/entertainment/ui...reviewId=15699

No fun -- and little fright -- in Shyamalan's latest thriller

Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald


The makers of The Village -- a thriller about the frightened inhabitants of
a late 19th century village surrounded by woods harboring monsters -- have
begged critics not to reveal too many specifics about the movie, so I will
dutifully comply. Instead, I will tell you what The Village is not: It is
not scary. It is not all that interesting. It isn't even much of a movie.


Instead, The Village is the first film by writer-director M. Night Shyamalan
(The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) that plays out like one long,
underwhelming stunt. This is a frustrating, self-indulgent exercise in
Twilight Zone trickery that leaves the audience holding the bag, wondering
what happened to the picture they paid money to see.
Like the best genre filmmakers, Shyamalan knows how to take creaky Creature
Feature plots (such as a kid who sees ghosts or an invasion of Earth by
aliens) and use them as a springboard for richer, more resonant ideas. The
Village is no exception: Its premise of a town paralyzed by the shadowy
threat outside its borders can be read as a commentary on the paranoia and
distrust that has permeated our culture post-9/11 (the moral of the story:
Life cannot be lived in a state of perpetual fear).

But Shyamalan's previous movies also delivered the goods on a visceral
level, and that is where The Village comes up short. The director's
trademark slow pace, which usually generates a sense of mounting tension,
only generates boredom this time. The townspeople are sketched in such thin,
two-dimensional terms that their stories -- such as the wan love triangle
between a blind girl (an impressive Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of Ron
Howard) and her two suitors (Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien Brody) -- feel like
padding.

So does the presence of familiar actors such as Sigourney Weaver and Brendan
Gleeson, who are given nothing to do other than stand around and look
worried. Mostly, you just get William Hurt, running around warning everyone
to keep out of the woods, or else incur the wrath of the creatures that live
there.

Shyamalan is an elegant director who favors subtle, quiet shocks that sneak
up on you, and The Village has a couple of good ones (including a violent
encounter that springs up when you least expect it, a la Psycho.) But the
film's meandering tone undercuts whatever suspense there was to be had, and
Shyamalan doesn't seem all that interested in monsters this time anyway.
This is not a case of a movie refusing to do what you hoped it would do:
It's a case of a movie pretending to be one thing, then turning out to be
something infinitely less engaging.

As for the story's highly guarded secret, some viewers will figure it out
less than an hour in, while others will be completely blindsided at film's
end. Either way, though, you'll leave The Village feeling like you've been
scammed.