The Village (Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix) 1/2
M. Night Shyamalan must now feel like an animal who has unwittingly backed himself into a corner. The unprecedented success of his past works, each renowned for their so-called surprise endings, has forced the writer-director to one-up himself with each new project. People now flock to multiplexes in hopes of outstumping the self-professed magician, or at least in hopes of being able to predict what kind of puppeteer is hiding behind the curtain. However his latest endeavour, The Village, is not about pulling the rug out from under our eyes, or creating a plot that hinges on a final revelation. Rather, it is a unique fairy tale mixed with a morality tale, all under the very adept framework of a highly suspenseful motion picture. It is the journey itself, not the final destination, that merits sturdy praise.
The Village is set in a non-descript place, perhaps somewhere in New England (a future DVD release will probably have rabid fans scanning for clues as to its setting). A small commune of villagers live a traditional and simplistic life away from the influence of outsiders. Years ago, the settlers forged a truce with a race of mysterious creatures who live in the forest beyond the borders, dubbed Those We Do Not Speak Of. In exchange for not trespassing, the citizens are free to live out their grammatically-correct, contraction-free lives.
Of course, Those We Do Not Speak Of are eventually spotted within the town limits, and this prompts an investigation among the town elders. Has one of the sacred rules been broken by one of the villagers? The community goes on high alert, including the guards who stay perched in the watchtower above. When an unfortunate incident threatens the life of a citizen, a decision must be made whether to allow someone to venture through the forest to retrieve medicine that could help the failing party survive.
As with the extra terrestrials in his underrated previous outing Signs, much of the creatures in The Village are hinted at but rarely seen. In the times when a monster is seen, from within a darkened movie theatre with the volume cranked to surround sound capacity, it's enough to give you either a big jump or a serious case of the heebie jeebies. I doubt the impact of these moments will be as formidable when it comes to home video.
Shyamalan pushes all the right buttons here. There is some highly inventive cinematography, as when the camera sits inside a doorway or glares from above or below. In one memorable portion, he sets the camera behind a couple of actors on a front porch and allows their emotions to take over the screen. There is also a fine montage that leads up to the unfortunate incident and it's structured just right as a very smart piece of editing. His mastery of framing objects and people hearkens back to some of the best suspense filmmakers of the last few decades. Those who gripe about the film's payoff are probably miffed for being so adeptly strung along by some of these innovative techniques.
A weird hybrid between The Blair Witch Project and Audrey Hepburn's Wait Until Dark, The Village stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a blind young woman named Ivy. Her heart belongs to the quiet young man Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix); that is, if her father Edward (an unexpectedly potent turn by William Hurt) will allow them to pursue a courtship. Other performers include Sigourney Weaver as Lucius's mother, Adrien Brody as Noah, a disturbed town outcast, and Michael Pitt as the appointed watcher from the tower. Everyone works well with the material to take it to a high level of intensity.
The Village is not without its flaws, but these flaws do not harm the flow of the film. And unlike his previous efforts Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, the loose ends are wrapped up much more eloquently. Here, guessing the machinations of the plot is far less important than submitting to the emotional aspects of the screenplay. And by subtracting the supernatural in some key moments, the material automatically becomes more accessible. You can't please everyone all the time, but if you manage to snag people's attention for most of the running time through sharp filmmaking and superior craftsmanship, then Shyamalan can claim, at least for a little while, he had us right where he wanted us. And I'm totally fine with that.
