The Village-Night Has A Serious STE
Remember the good old days before some secret group came in and replaced M. Night Shame-alamadingdong’s brain with that of the village idiots brain? How could the same guy do The Sixth Sense, which was an excellent film and we shouldn’t forget that, and then give us Signs, which was silly and borrowed heavily, now he give us The Village. Part of the problem is Night has become the prisoner of his own highly successful device–the Shyamalan Twisting Ending or STE, and no there is no penicillin to cure this STE. By becoming an addict to the device that put him on cinemas radar, he is essentially imploding. Watching Shyamalan attempt to weave an entire story around a shocking ending is just sad at this point and hopefully people will just start saying no.
Alright, the story. There is a village–real shock right, and this village is encircled by monsters out in the woods. These monsters are supposedly really, really horrible, we’re talking Rosie O’Donnell naked horrible. Set in 1890's America you will, in the end, be disappointed when you discover what the monsters are, as your imagination will likely be superior to what old Night has in store for you. I don’t want to give away too much, but someone gets quite ill and someone has to go for help, which is where the story falls completely apart. In a moment, the audience is taken from “something cool may happen here,” after all this is the Sixth Sense guy, to “what the hell? Man this is s**t,” as I heard someone moan in the theater. Now, this chap in the theater is not a member of the Hollywood elite and he unaware that Night is a genius, one of the handful of brilliant minds that will save the industry. No this ignorant, uneducated buffoon only knows what he likes.
This is not to say that The Village is a total wreck. There are numerous strong acting performances from veteran actors such as William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver. Adrien Brody is a little over the top, you’ll see what I mean, but he does a okay job and Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard’s daughter does a decent, bordering on a good job in a role that many a Hollywood starlet waiting tables a Denny’s probably comically read for at some point. The problem is that once the great secret is revealed to us mere pea-brained mortal savages, the acting performances and all the wonderful work that went into The Village by so many, becomes, well a little laughable.
The STE is so silly, so stupid, so improbable, that all the wonderful cinematography by Roger Deakins will largely be forget, as will the set design and the costuming. This is sad for all involved. Night could have skipped his STE, skipped “the shocking ending” and put a different ending on the film and the audience, remember them Night they paid to see your film, may have walked away happy. Again, if I reveal the issue at hand, I ruin the ending. Let’s just say that the ending has many logic errors that would prevent the premise of the entire film from working for long. Can’t bend reality Night.
This is one director that desperately needs to stop being cute, stop being a smart ass, stop trying to show us how smart he is, because we’re starting to think you’re not that smart, and get back to the freaking basics. Learn how to connect with an audience again instead of trying to wow them.
My advice put The Village on your Netflix or Blockbuster account and set back and enjoy some unintentional comedy. Sooner or later the studio executives are going to figure out that this guy may be a one trick pony and that trick is getting pretty old. If you really want a village, rent the old 1960's Prisoner series from the BBC, Night can only pray to find that kind of originality.
Story C- (Up until the ending the story is engaging enough, but good god does it fall apart in a sea of logic errors.)
Acting B-
Visuals B
Originality/Innovation C-
Enjoyability Grade C-
Home Theater/HD Factor B
Overall Grade C (It hurts to watch a director go from A movies to movies that barely manage to hold onto that C grade.)
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