THE VILLAGE (2004) THROWBACK THURSDAY

The Village (2004)

Dir: M. Night Shyamalan 

When The Village came out 11 years ago, I thought, "this looks pretty good" because I personally found other M. Night Shyamalan films to my taste. His films are always developed around a carefully prepared and eventual twist. Whether it's the underrated Signs (2002), the hugely successful Unbreakable (2000) and of course, The Sixth Sense (1999), all his films possess these standard-twist-like Shyamalan characteristics.

Upon The Village's release way back when, I distinctly remember people who had seen it only telling me of it's slow story and its failure to live up to Shyamalan's past successes. So I never got round to watching it. Only until recently did I finally sit down and take it in and to be honest, it did not disappoint.

A summary of the plot is that a small artful gothic village of no more than a hundred or so inhabitants are not allowed to enter the surrounding woods because violent creatures reside there. An apparent agreement was forged that the villagers stay out the woods and the creatures stay within.

As the film goes deeper, the viewer does have slight inklings of how the story will end, but these vague ideas are constantly dismissed because of its ridiculousness. When the ending's ever impending twist is revealed you do get a sense of resentfulness and a feeling of being cheated like so many told me back in 2004. But upon further analysis, this sense of 'vindictiveness' is probably because the viewer is spending the entire film trying to figure out its plot instead of sitting and enjoy "The Village's" unraveling factors of fear, security and distinction between rationality and superstition. 

"The Village" has an impressive cast too. William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson and Sigourney Weaver among others all star as the village elders who seem to have made the set of elaborate rules of keeping the forest dwellers and villagers separate. The three other main protagonists are Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody and Byrce Dallas Howard. This strong assembled cast really do act out wonderful and cleverly misleading performances in a somber soaked fairy tale. 

What's most refreshing about "The Village" is the director does care in-abundance of how the film looks and feels. There is no CGI or special effects to take the viewer away from the dank, dreary pre-industrialist surroundings.

A classically framed film with a suspenseful music score to match. I wish I'd have watched it sooner. 7.5/10.