M. Night Shyamalan, with just four films, has quickly become the heir apparent to Alfred Hitchcock in crafting disturbing and clever stories that work both as mainstream entertainment and fodder for thinking people. My one complaint about Shyamalan is that his films tend to leave me always wanting more. Perhaps because I have such high expectations of him, I find tiny things to quibble about and tend to forget that for nine tenths of the script, he was close to perfection. Such was the case with The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, good movies that should have been better and less so with Signs, which I believe is his best realized film and the one that holds up to repeated viewings. In The Village, Shyamalan has again crafted a worthy screenplay that acts as a thriller to scare your pants off, as a comedy-drama about Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, and as a political allegory about the decay of contemporary society.
To give away plot points in a Shyamalan film would be unfair, so I will duck the issue by focusing on specific scenes without exposing the big secrets. The story focuses on a small village of people who are not Amish but may prescribe to their values. Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) wants to leave the village after his good friend passed away because he was unable to receive needed medicines from the ‘towns’. But Lucius cannot leave without the consent of the village elders. Nobody ever leaves the village because of what or who lives in the surrounding forest. The colour red is also forbidden, as it attracts them and the elders claim there is a truce between the two groups whereby the village inhabitants stay out of the forest and “those of whom we don’t speak” stay out of the village. Stories of others who had left and had never returned were common among the children and therefore nobody ever wanted to leave their idyllic village. That is until Lucius wants to go seek help and medicine.
Lucius’s mother (Sigourney Weaver) does not want him to leave and neither does Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), the blind but precocious girl whom he loves. But the mentally disabled Noah (Adrien Brody) disapproves of the romance between Lucius and Ivy and takes action. This, of course, leads to someone having to go beyond the village’s borders, breaching the woods and venturing to the towns for medicine. William Hurt is excellent as Edward Walker, father of Ivy and the wisest of the village elders. He presides over these townsfolk like a wise old professor and calms their concerns when strange things begin to happen. The warning bell tolls when trouble is afoot or when sightings of those of whom we don’t speak occur.
Shyamalan again is a master of mood, tone and style, like Hitchcock, and keeps the scary bits off screen, which in this desensitized world, makes them all the more frightening. Howard, the real life daughter of director Ron Howard, is fabulous is Ivy and parts of the film remind me of the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark, about a blind woman fending off bad guys. Shyamalan is so comfortable behind the camera that each of his films reveals more about his talent and his creative energy. The Village is another solid effort but is not a masterpiece. I will not reveal the clever twists and turns that leave viewers guessing, but some viewers, like me, may come away wanting more. Here’s hoping Shyamalan has a masterpiece in him yet.
Shyamalan is a master of mood, tone and style, like Hitchcock, and keeps the scary bits off screen, which in this desensitized world, makes them all the more frightening.- Jamie Gillies
