The Village

I think two factors are behind the bulk of negative reviews for "The Village": one, it's fairly obvious that M. Night Shymalan has gone into the well a few too many times in regard to his Big Twist plot scenario, and two, the film was wrongly advertised as a horror movie.

Perhaps my knowledge of these two facts was what let me enjoy the movie on a level that other people haven't; watching it as a dark fairy tale, a critique on today's contemporary situation, a beautiful love story, and a chilling suspense mystery. With gorgeous visuals, fantastic use of colour and a haunting violinist score, "The Village" is certainly a feast for the senses, whatever you might think of the actual story.

In an idyllic, peaceful clearing is a hamlet where children play together, adults work together, and which is benevolently ruled over by a group of Elders. Amongst them is Edward Walker, the village patriarch and school-teacher, widowed Alice Hunt, and bereaved father August Nicolson, who has just lost his son to illness.

The second generation is represented mainly through Edward's two daughters, the giddy Kitty, and the blind, spiritual Ivy, and Alice's son Lucius - a near-mute introvert who never speaks more than five words strung together unless he's carefully written out what he wants to say on a piece of paper. As well as this, there's Noah Percy, a mentally challenged young man who adores Ivy, and is consequently hurt and confused by her growing feelings for Lucius.

The village is surrounded by Covington Woods, and here is where the real chills are to be found. Inside these woods dwell what the villagers call "Those We Don't Speak Of", strange and menacing monsters that stand between the village and the outside towns. Not that this is a bad thing, as we are told that the towns are "wicked places, full of wicked people". Despite this, it is important that the villagers uphold the uneasy truce between the woods and their community. A series of defences are in place to keep the creatures at bay: watchtowers, warning bells, offerings, cloaks of "the safe colour" and a restriction against anything that is red - this apparently attracts them. And no one is *ever* to go into the woods.

But of course, we all know that anything forbidden is instantly fascinating, and that teenagers are almost genetically engineered to test the boundaries put in place around them. Therefore, whilst the other boys are playing "chicken" games at the edge of the woods, Lucius is exploring his own theory concerning the creatures: he is greatly affected by the death August's son, and believes that if the traveller had noble intentions (such as fetching medicines from the towns), the creatures would let him pass unharmed.

But as he puts this to the test, the threat from the creatures grow - skinned animals and red marks appear on the doors. Coincidence? No way. Rules are continually broken, and lines continually crossed throughout the story - even the angelic Ivy breaks her "no hitting" rule. Finally Lucius (and the rest of the youths) seem frightened enough to no longer attempt passage through the woods, until an accident occurs that forces a drastic decision to be made. Now Ivy must go through the terrible woods, in order to save the life of her beloved...

I know that the illogical plot-holes are so gaping that you could drive a truck through them, and I know that there are some serious problems with the final resolution, but there comes a point when you make a decision - to either go with it, or scoff at it. Most people it seems have taken the second option, and unfortunately they miss out on a lot of what the director is trying to tell us about fear, authority, rules, innocence and control - all of which have particular resonance in today's world. Whether you liked it or not, please ask yourself this: where does the real danger lie - in the woods, in the towns, or in the village itself? Are some of the choices made justified? Is retaining innocence worth the terror that goes with it?

As well as this, there are a lot of things to enjoy; the afore mentioned atmosphere, and the genuine scares that Shymalan throws in (at one particularly harrowing moment three girls behind me in the theatre screamed - and I mean really *screamed*). Most touching for me however, was the love story between Ivy and Lucius - every time she puts her hand out, he's there to take it, and their discussion on the porch is beautifully performed and shot: the silent Lucius suddenly blurts out what's on his mind, whilst the talkative Ivy is struck dumb.

There are some things however, that stopped me from giving it five stars, the biggest one being the sudden veer away from Lucius's plot development. Shymalan builds an interesting and endearing character, and then he abruptly drops from the action, never to return. This obviously had to happen in order to get Ivy into the woods, but we never *return* to his story. Ivy learnt some truths on her journey that she'll undoubtably share with him, but we never see how he'll react to them. For that matter, we never actually learn if Ivy was actually *successful* in her mission - does he survive or not?

All in all, I enjoyed "The Village", and I really hope you take the time to look deeper into what it's trying to say. Everything, from the colours invoked (red, the colour of violence to yellow, the colour of cowardice) to the poetic flow of the language - which is perhaps *meant* to be a little stiff, is there for a reason. Some great performances from the actors involved, and meticulous direction and control from Shymalan - I'm definitely getting this on DVD.

There is so much bad word of mouth out there about "The Village" that I had to go see it by myself because nobody wanted to see it with me. I avoided all the publicity about M. Night Shyamalan's fourth film so that I could make up my own mind. Besides, if the whole point is to see whether he can fool us again, why would you want to know anything on the chance that it would be too much? If the film gets spoiled by a review, then that is hardly giving the film a chance. Even when Penn & Teller show you how they do their trick, they get to do the trick first.

The Village is located in a valley surrounding by Covington Woods. The year is 1897 according to the tombstone we see at the start of the film. As we are introduced to life in the community we learn about the strange rules under which its inhabitants live. If you did not read the rules on the poster for "The Village," they are enacted during the first part of the film. Red is a bad color that cannot be seen because it attracts them, while mustard yellow is a color of safety. No one can enter the woods because that is where those of whom no one speaks will get you. If the warning bell is sounded, then head for the cellars in your houses immediately because they are coming.

A council of elders run the village, and their leader is clearly Edward Walker (William Hurt). They set the tone for the village, but in the wake of the death of a young child because of sickness, young Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) wants to leave the village, travel through the forbidden woods, and bring back medicine from one of the towns on the other side. Lucius is uncommonly brave. The young boys test their courage by standing on a stump on the border between the village and the woods, and Lucius is the record holder. But his courage could doom the Village by breaking the truce that has held between the two sides for many years.

Most of that you can pick up from the trailers for "The Village." Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius is clearly the hero of the film and you know know that there is no reason to set up these rules if they are not going to get violated as a major plot development in the film. Beyond that it is difficult to say anything that would not interfer with your chance to enjoy the film on its own terms. However, there are two things I can say.

First, given that he has backed himself in a corner it terms of always having to come up with some big secret twist for all of his films, Shyamalan does try to come up with something to meet the raised expectations. You can certainly decide afterwards that the secret was not big enough or good enough, but unless the film has been spoiled for you I cannot believe you are going to see everything that is coming. As we know from "Signs" and the rest of his films if there is one thing Shyamalan can do it is that everything fits together in the end.

Second, as I started to get into this film I decided that the character I really liked was Ivy Walker, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. That is the one name that appears in the opening credits that I did not recognize (remember, I avoided all the publicity) and so when it turned out that Bryce was playing Ivy, and that the actress is the daughter of Ron Howard I was surprised (no wonder she looked familiar without my recognizing her). This is a breakthrough performance, which may well be the only thing that everybody who sees "The Village" is going to agree on.

Early on in this film I decided what I wanted this film to be, not expecting that it would actually end up being that, so when it did I was both surprised and gratified. Since I never put much significance into the meaning of Shyamalan's movie twists, focusing instead on whether or not I could be fooled, "The Village" certainly meets the criteria. He got me. Again.

I read several reviews before seeing this movie and they pretty muched summed up to the movie being fair to pretty good. I saw a few really neagtive ones as well. I went to the movie with an open mind and waqs glad that I did. I will have to say that the director was very true to his style. I belive that a lot of people who gave the movie poor ratings came to see it with many preconceived notions of what it would be. I must admit when I first saw the trailers I classified it as a scary movie that would take place in the late 18th century. The beauty of the story is that it is much more than what it appears and the director is very successful in tying together many intricate details into a seemless plot that takes a person's perception of reality on a roller coaster ride. I feel that if the same people who gave this movie a bad review were to have simply sat back and let the story unfold before them rather than coaxing into a direction they thought it should go then they would have enjoyed all that it had to offer. The plot and story is very original and I recommend it for both its ambiance and story.