M. Night Shyamalan may be the most overrated mainstream filmmaker working today, and The Village is an instant contender for worst film of the year. As usual, the over-hyped filmmaker uses his trademark directorial flourishes – long, unbroken tracking shots, a focus on lame dialogue (here, not a single contraction!) over action, an ominous sense of foreboding – to tell the thoroughly tedious Our Town-ish tale of a 19th-century town sharing an uneasy truce with monsters (a.k.a. Those Who Shall Not Be Named) living in the surrounding woods. Shyamalan spends the first hour concentrating on the love lives and general happiness of the townsfolk, but since the director is just building up to yet another idiotic surprise ending, it’s hard to care about situations that have been designed only to obscure the ultimate twist. No shock that the conclusion is mind-bogglingly disappointing and deflating, but what’s truly disheartening is the film’s pervasive predictability and pomposity. An all-star cast featuring Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson and newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard must have been forced at gunpoint to participate in this nonsense; how else to explain all these fine actors wasting their talent on a painfully naïve story about the ills of the modern world? The only thing that would drive me to live in such a secluded Amish village is the threat of having to watch this fiasco again.
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Not even a D- ?
YOu're overreacting.
Who ever heard of such original ideas as a blind person who can "see" the truth?
P.S. My love can heal you.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg | August 05, 2004 at 01:05 PM
Awful. Just plain awful. Usually I'll leave the commentary on movies to luminaries like Mr. Schager here, but even I had to comment how bad this movie was on my blog . . . and Jesus, when they pulled out that picture of William Hurt and the rest of the cast from the black box (and for no one who hasn't seen it and will, you'll understand) wasn't that a photo from the shoot of "The Big Chill"????
Posted by: Wawa | August 05, 2004 at 03:42 PM
No, I don't think I'm overreacting, because that movie was truly dreadful. I went with three people (one of them Cath), and we all were groaning throughout. I mean, why even make such a movie? It says nothing about anything, and only really exists to trick us....as if anyone cares about the surprise ending by the time it rolls around. Ugh.
And what was with that photo? I know they were trying to doctor it so people looked younger, but Brendan Gleeson didn't even look like himself.
I just don't understand why people respond to his junk....
Posted by: Nick | August 05, 2004 at 04:17 PM
Oh, Cathy was groaning all right.
Posted by: Joe Grossberg | August 05, 2004 at 04:52 PM
Oh Facce, one can always count on you to give an online site some class....
Posted by: Nick | August 09, 2004 at 10:14 AM