It takes a ‘Village’

ALLEN MacDONALD

At one point mid-way through M. Night Shyamalan’s excellent new film,

“The Village,” elder Edward Walker (William Hurt) escorts his blind

daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) down to a heavily locked cottage

that the village children have always been forbidden to enter. Before

unlocking the door he instructs her delicately, “Please do your very

best not to scream.”

This moment encapsulates why Shyamalan is such a master of

suspense. The mere suggestion that we’re about to see something

horrific sends a chill rocketing down the spine. We play it out in

our own heads, which is why seeing his films is often comparable to

reading a book.

“The Village” tells the story of a small community of people that

have chosen to live outside the mainstream society. They have cut

themselves off from the local towns and cities where corruption and

violence has touched each of the elders at one time in their lives,

driving them away to this place of solitude where they can live in

egalitarian harmony.

But they have become barricaded within their borders by the

presence of mystical creatures that lurk in the nearby forests. You

can hear them cackle and shift in the meadows, watching and waiting.

They are violent, dangerous, carnivorous creatures if provoked,

but the village struck a truce with them long ago: if the villagers

stay out of their forest, the monsters will respect the boundaries of

the village.

The younger generation, however, represented here by Ivy and the

young man that has loved her since youth, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin

Phoenix), are restlessly testing those borders, uncomfortable being

confined.

One of the trade-offs of being cut off from the world is they are

denied access to medicine, and that has resulted in the deaths of

several village children who likely could’ve been saved in a city

hospital. Lucius continually petitions to walk through the forest to

reach town and return with medications, convinced that the creatures

will sense his pure heart and allow him safe passage. The Elders

aren’t so sure.

What I loved about this film was the way that it continually

surprised me with its plot twists.

Shyamalan is a writer who knows to propel the plot with fleshed

out characters who’s desires and motivations, both good and evil,

inform every turn.

Many times while viewing “The Village,” I was convinced it would

collapse under its own narrative weight, but every time it proved me

wrong.

On three separate occasions I thought to myself, “Oh, you can’t do

that.” But I was glad that the movie did. I like to be surprised. I

like to be caught off guard, and the story has been so well thought

out, that it not only makes sense, but has been set up from the

start. Just when you get comfortable and think you know where “The

Village” is heading, the carpet gets pulled out from under you -- and

isn’t that the whole point of going to see a movie? With all of his

films, Shyamalan infuses his characters with heart, but there’s a

striking minimalism to his approach. He uses long takes in his film,

meaning he uses a single shot for nearly an entire scene without

cutting to a different angle. It’s a refreshing counterpoint to the

MTV mentality of 100 edits every 30 seconds. He’s rediscovered the

lost art of sound design: most movies like to be noisy, Shyamalan

builds his suspense with silence, and different variations thereof.

Cracking branches, wind rustling trees, thrown rocks and creaking

wood needle our every last nerve. Silence provokes intense

anticipation.

The use of color in all Shyamalan’s films (“The Sixth Sense,”

“Unbreakable” and “Signs”) is also very clever and informs his

minimalist style. The cinematography prefers muted tones that suggest

an approaching winter, so that when the characters explain that the

color red is forbidden in the village because it attracts the

monsters, our brain’s are being hard-wired to tense the body whenever

something red appears on the screen. It creates a Pavlovian reaction:

red means brace yourself because bad things are about to happen.

Strong performances dominate the movie. Joaquin Phoenix and Adrien

Brody give understated weight to their characters, especially since

neither is particularly good at communicating, or even speaking for

that matter. But it’s Bryce Dallas Howard who gives “The Village” a

luminous central character.

In her first starring role, Howard brings a quiet grace to Ivy.

There isn’t a hint of self-pity in her voice. She is fierce, strong

and independent, and represents everything that is good and bad about

their closed community. Sigourney Weaver and Hurt bring their own

gravity to the story, but, unfortunately, feel wasted by the film’s

end. Weaver especially. If she was given anything substantial to do,

it’s probably still on the cutting room floor. The attraction Hurt

and Weaver’s characters feel for one and other is one of the few

loose ends left unattended by the time the credits roll. I think

Shyamalan thinks he tied it up, but it feels anticlimactic.

“The Village” isn’t a perfect film. It’s a little flimsy at the

start, the pace a little too deliberate. But it rewards the careful

viewer, and I can’t express how well the screenplay was constructed.

I’m still thinking about it two days later and for every question I

pose, I realize there’s a solid answer in the set-up.

Shyamalan thought this story through, anticipated all the

conceivable holes and cinched them closed with a convincing

explanation. The dialogue is off-putting as it bounces with the

formal cadence of the late-nineteenth century dialect. I think some

may feel cheated by Shyamalan’s now eagerly anticipated final twist.

I think it’s a fantastic reveal.

“The Village” is being advertised simply as a monster movie.

That’s a bit misleading. It does provide effect scares, but it is so

much more than that.

* ALLEN MacDONALD, 30, recently earned a master’s in screenwriting

from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

‘Village’ entertains, but lacks quality of previous films

I am an admitted fan of M. Night Shyamalan and have been looking

forward to the release of “The Village” since I first saw the trailer

months ago. Prior to seeing the film over the weekend, I was a bit

dismayed to read the very mixed reviews it has received.

Shyamalan is somewhat of a throwback in the movie industry as he

writes, produces and directs his films. This level of creative

control is becoming increasingly unusual and is probably only

possible due to the success of Shyamalan’s previous offerings

including “The Sixth Sense,” the unfairly ignored “Unbreakable” and

“Signs.” While wearing multiple hats allows Shyamalan ultimate

artistic freedom, it also eliminates his ability to deflect any blame

should a project go awry.

“The Village” stands on its own merits, and would be considered a

quality film by most critics if it was written, produced and directed

by persons less well known.

One thing any Shyamalan film has going against it is the

audience’s anticipation of his trademark plot twist. “The Village”

actually has two of them, one of which I easily figured out about 20

minutes into the film. Knowing what was later revealed did not

necessarily diminish my enjoyment of the movie. I suggest viewers

concentrate less on trying to be plot detectives and more on simply

letting the story unfold.

The village referred to in the title is a close-knit community in

a verdant valley surrounded by thick forest. Governed in an

egalitarian style by the elders, the village is self-sustaining and

very communal in nature. Chores, policing and even meals are shared.

However, it soon becomes evident that life in the village is not as

pastoral as it first appears.

The village boundaries end at the edge of the forest wherein dark

forces dwell. The creatures living in the forest are ominously

referred to as “Those We Do Not Speak Of.” It is explained by the

village’s leader Edward Walker (William Hurt) that a truce exists

allowing the two entities to coexist as long as the villagers don’t

enter the forest. While this condition is adhered to, the unseen

creatures don’t enter the valley.

Unfortunately, the village simpleton Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) has

been entering the forest to pick red berries, a color forbidden by

the elders because it is said to attract the creatures. This

intrusion has apparently violated the truce and the mysterious

red-cloaked forest dwellers start invading the village leaving

mutilated animals as proof of their forays.

The cast of “The Village” is excellent. Besides Hurt and Brody,

the cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson

and Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron Howard. Playing the

headstrong blind villager Ivy Walker, Howard is convincing and

compelling and appears to have a bright future.

Viewers will undoubtedly find parallels to the current political

climate. The effect on a society of being threatened from outside

forces will seem familiar.

I enjoyed “The Village” as a pleasant diversion, but do not

consider it to be in the same league as Shyamalan’s other films. I

perceive each of Shyamalan’s films to be declining in quality from

the previous effort. Even Alfred Hitchcock, the so-called “Master of

Suspense” could not sustain a single genre of film his entire career.

I suggest that Shyamalan try something completely different for his

next project lest he be “pigeonholed” and subsequently not allowed to

realize his full potential.

* VAN NOVACK, 50, is the director of institutional research at Cal

State Long Beach and lives in Huntington Beach with his wife

Elizabeth.