The Village

The Village (2004)

August 13, 2004

Boston Common Theater, Boston, MA

** / ****

The Village is a movie of the twist, by the twist, and for the twist. Worse, it’s really four twists gradually exposed until you’re tired of twists and feeling frisky for a cinematic statement of any other sort. But alas, the hints of a moral are merely hints without the follow through and the twists, unfortunately, are all the legs this movie has to stand on. And those are some pretty weak legs, indeed.

Without giving much away, The Village is M. Night Shyamalan’s (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) story of a small 19^th century community isolated from the rest of society by self-imposed boundaries and the fear that in the surrounding forests lie “those we don’t speak of.” These unmentionables are monsters that will kill if provoked, or at least that’s what we’re told. A group of “elders” led by William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver guide the community in their relations with “those we don’t speak of” and are the only individuals who have seen anything outside the village. The plot revolves around these monsters, their relationship with “the elders,” and the truth about what lies just beyond the village. That “those we don’t speak of” are spoken of about a hundred times throughout the film is the first and best indicator that this plodding fraud of entertainment is setting us up for the biggest let down since Fonzie tried to water ski over a shark in Happy Days.

Everything in the village is a giant secret to its inhabitants and as a viewer, once exposed most of these secrets are more silly than revelatory. One by one the twists are revealed furthering our frustration as one leads to the next. When the final revelation comes, built up by everything that preceded it, we can do little more than scratch our heads as we ponder, “is that it?” Sadly, that is it, and by that point in the movie where we had hoped for a cool surprise or at least something exciting and different what we are given is anything but. Instead it becomes obvious: we have just been deliberately deceived in a very unfair manner. Worse yet is the revelation that the deception begins and ends with the very first shot in the opening scene, an image thrust in the audience’s face as a deliberate and unfair red herring that does nothing more than intentionally lead us in a false direction we otherwise would have never gone.

Much of the trouble with The Village is that the only mystery worth caring about is the answer to what exactly lies beyond the woods in “the towns.” Because the monsters aren’t intriguing, the characters boring, the dialogue laughable, and the society backwards from the get-go it is essential that that reveal be something we can sink our teeth into. By filling us with so many questions, in particular, what was so bad about “the towns” that kept “the elders” away for so long, and then responding to them with the most lame and disappointing answer the movie builds to a climax that needs impressive resolution. Instead, it couldn’t possibly be any more lousy and confounding if it tried.

As I sat in my seat taunted by the promise of some moral or social commentary and finally realizing I would not receive any I was reminded of The Truman Show and how its main character was confined in his setting by his own fear perpetuated by the individuals in his community. Where that movie effectively commented on media, fear, manipulation, and innocence The Village nosed around such subjects but sadly jumped ship when it really counted leaving merely trickery and deception for us to carry away once the movie ended. A parable on the age of fear that currently resonates with our American society? I hope not, because if that was the point it sure didn’t arrive there by Shyamalan’s hand and certainly not in any concise or entertaining manner.

Additional note: The Village is a crappy movie. However, the original musical score by James Newton Howard is excellent. With its bleak and haunting violin strains this is some of the most original, unique, and thoroughly engaging music I have heard in a movie soundtrack. Too bad the film couldn’t live up to the tunes.