The Village: Reviewed

Before I begin: trying to watch an M. Night Shyamalan flick while a whole row of boys behind you are spouting gems like -

"Jokim Feniks! Ha ah la! Dalam treler Ladder 49 tadi kan?"

"Hee! Macam muka kau la!" (cue whole row guffawing)

"Apsal la bodoh gila ni?"

is not easy. And that's putting it mildly.

Secondly, in order to fully appreciate the scope of The Village, answer these two questions:

What would you do to preserve your way of life?
What price would be too high, what sacrifice would you offer to this end?

Somewhere deep inside Shyamalan's latest effort lies a good story, and also those questions I mentioned above. However, somewhere along the way it got mired in below average execution and plodding pacing resulting in a bit of a letdown, which hurts this film more than it realises. By now, we all know MNS. The little Indian man who decided to take Hollywood by storm a couple of years and singlehandedly made the "twist" ending cool again.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

For the uninitiated: The Village tells the story of an isolated town's inevitable confrontation with the horrors that supposedly inhabit its borders, and of the town elders' dark secret that they will keep even if it means losing one of their own...

Perhaps we expect too much out of the director. Maybe the resurgence of the twist ending has somewhat dulled our nerves, leading us to want more. The titular village is a secluded, isolated place, cut off from all the rest of civilisation by an impenetrable forest that is also home, apparently to a race of monstrous beings. The residents live in a self-sufficient enclosed system, all of them abiding by the town rules, and never daring to use the Forbidden Colour or venturing out beyond their borders. It is in this claustrophobic setting that Shyamalan decides to place his story, and though the device is valid, IMO there are a few too many holes for us to be able to swallow this one hook, line and sinker.

Firstly, the positives. In The Village, MNS more than ever emphasises the human facet of the story. These are ordinary people living their lives the only way they know how. They speak in an anachronistic manner, dress in the simplest of clothes and their whole lives are dictated by the rule of the elders. In a manner of speaking, this is their utopia, and on the whole this is conveyed rather well (although to be honest a lot of the other characters are a bit two dimensional). There is unrequited love, fear, tension and a sense of responsibility. As the film reaches its conclusion, the characters have to make some of the toughest decisions of their lives, and to a certain extent they succeed in convincing us of the situation's gravity. The setting also lends itself to helping our suspension of disbelief, as we begin to accept that even without chronological/geographic markers of any kind, something is terribly wrong with this scenario.

On the other hand, one cannot help but feel as if MNS underutilised the acting talent he was given. I mean with William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody and Joaquin Phoenix one would expect something more but that's all we do throughout the movie: we expect, and we wait. This, sadly describes the movie best. We see the twist and scares coming, we anticipate them and when they DO arrive find that they fall flat. Even the obligatory MNS cameo invites derision rather than laughs, and for once we wish we saw less of him.

All in all, The Village isn't a total failure. There are moments when the story (and may I say moral questions) shine through, but these are few and far between. Caught between a plodding first half and a totally watered down ending, The Village tries to break new ground but only proves that like its characters, it's too scared to venture out of its own boundaries.

Ash.ox gives The Village a 2.5 out of 5