The Village: Not As Bad As You've Heard
Monday, August 2, 2004 at 6:15PM 2 Comments Thursday night our friend who works at ClearChannel treated us to a trip to see The Village. I may not have said the nicest things about ClearChannel in the past, but I will say that when it comes to the ticket hook-up, I have absolutely no problem with them.
The reviews for this thing have been pretty bad. Slate has been especially harsh, with not only a bad review ("pious hokum," "dumb"), but also an additional article that basically paints M. Night Shyamalan as a petulant hack. A bit harsh.
It wasn't so long ago that this guy was being hailed as the next coming of Hitchcock, and not just for his ability to insert himself into each of his films. (I entered The Village wondering how an East Indian guy was going to wind up in an 1890's village. Well, he did it.)
The upshot of the recent criticism of M. Night has been that his pacing and direction have outgrown his screenwriting abilities. In other words, we all know what to expect going into one of his movies, and the payoff of each film's suprise ending suffers from the law of diminishing returns.
There may be some validity to this. Clues to the twists in The Village were available througout the film. I'll admit that although I knew the big twist was coming, I didn't know what it was until it was revealed, and then it seemed obvious, yet still satisfying. The Village doesn't pack quite the thrill of Signs for example, but it's a better film, and the actors certainly do a better job, especially the much-heralded Bryce Howard, daughter of Opie Cunningham.
I've heard that Life of Pi is up next for M. Night. I hope that's the case - it's a great story and I can't think of anyone who could tell that particular story better.
Reader Comments (2)
i didn't think the twist was satisfying at all. i totally saw it coming and i hoped wasn't what i thought it was, and then it was, and the whole movie just got ruined for me. i don't think people should not see it, i just think that it wasn't the movie it could have been. maybe i need to see it again and re-examine the whole thing. but i think it would have been better if it had been real.
the acting and directing was definitley better than Signs, though.
I too figured out the main twist a little in advance, but it did not spoil the movie for me. It just made me admire the cleverness of Shyamalan.
By the way, all you lame people can stop calling him Shama-lama-ding-dong. You aren't the first to think of it; it wasn't that funny in 1999 when Sixth Sense came out; and no, it's still not funny.