The reviews I'd seen for The Village weren't all that encouraging, but it was the likeliest looking candidate at the video shop so we gave it a try. It's probably just as well that I wasn't expecting much, because in the end I quite enjoyed it. It's not at all scary - well, mildly so at the beginning - and from the middle of the film onwards it's not so much scary as interesting.
If you haven't seen it yet and don't want to find out what happens, don't read on.
I couldn't believe it when, just as Ivy is about to enter the woods and risk a mauling from Those of which we do not speak, it turns out that the creatures are made up to prevent villagers from leaving. I didn't get the twist until, after her long ordeal in the woods (including being chased by one of those of which we do not speak), she came up against what looked like a boundary fence. "Hah!" I thought. No doubt we'll find out that the villagers are in fact in an insane asylum - a very spacious one.
Despite the non-scariness and the slow pace, the story certainly got me thinking (enough to invade my sleep, even). It made me think about the possibility that being a victim of crime (or just related to one) might be enough to make you want to withdraw from society completely, to the point where you deny the existence of the outside world; about how the offspring, who have known no other life, would feel if they found out they were in fact being cushioned from a high-tech, high-stress society where people actually use swear words and don't always behave like gentlemen;that whereever there are human beings there is the potential for crime.
I also wondered whether these families wouldn't have been better off going to live with the Amish, thus regaining their idealised innocence without having to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist.
9 comments:
I still haven't watched The Village but my brother told me it's really good.
I saw this movie recently and picked the twist about a quarter of a way through. Althought not a bad movie, there are plotholes galore in it - the biggest one being, why didn't the elders just go into town and get the drugs? Send the blind chick? How stupid are you people?
Joaquin is yummy though.
Charlie: it's good, but it's not gonna change your life
Frallie: they elders didn't go into town because they'd sworn an oath not to, and I reckon they let the blind girl go (and not her fiance) because they figured she's less likely to catch on to what's really going on. You're right about Joaquin, though.
I though The Village was one of M. Night Shyamalan's better movies. Certainly a lot better than Signs.
I liked the fact that there was more than one twist in the movie, and dispite plot holes (what movie doesn;t contain some?) it managed to keep you glued to find out what was gonna happen.
I didn't see Signs, because it too had luke warm reviews. But I did see The Sixth Sense, which I thought is his best, and Unbreakable which was quite imaginative.
After 6th Sense, this is definitely my favourite Shyamalan movie.
So what if it wasn't that scary, or if some people could see the ending coming. That is not what the movie was about.
What I enjoyed was the way he used colours and music to create the atmosphere. The cool cameo by the director. The tiny hints all over the place that ensured a repeat viewing.
That's true. His use of colour reminds me of Hero
Post a Comment