Locations/Showings
Featuring Mainstream &
Art House Choices

Forum
Scary Movie 3 was neither scary nor a movie. Discuss this & more.

Reviews
Glorifications & Executions of the latest Movies, DVDs, and television shows.

Flashback Flicks
Krull and other "Lost" Classics get their day in the sun.

Crapmasterpieces
So darn crappy they're hilariously brilliant.

TV Highlights
Boob Tube Playtime!

Calendar
A movie/tv related calendar. Covers openings, DVD release dates, conventions etc.

The Village
Watchers In the Woods.

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Pitt
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan

Reviewed by Larry Stanley

Covington, Pennsylvania is a nice, quite place in the late 1890’s. Surrounded by beautiful woods, the sky a clear blue and as lovely a group of people you are likely to find anywhere.

A seeming mixture of Educated, forward thinkers and an Amish type folk at the same time, they share a weekly meal between all the families, the children attend a one room school house and the town is governed by a group of respected Elders.

"Night! Come On! I don't have any Fonzie stories... I've never even seen Happy Days!"

The place seem like an ideal town of it’s time. Unburdened yet be the events that will come about in just a few short years, the population of Covington have separated themselves from the rest of the state, feeling that the dirt and evil of the world outside would taint their community.

Despite all that, the children are healthy, generally. That taking into account the opening scene of the film showing August Nicholson (Gleeson) crying beside the grave of his newly dead son Daniel, only 7 years old and the towns mentally challenged youth Noah Percy (Adrien Brody).

Still, they all seem intelligent, hard working and diligent about their lives. Everyone is happily portrayed as a fairly carefree group, interested in working and raising their families.
We watch young people doing things that many of them would never dream of today; like respecting their elders, using manners without being forced too and even taking a hand in the day to day chores that surround them.

No credit card worries, no hassles over job promotions going to someone else, no traffic worries. No cable TV, no electricity bills and no smog.

But, there is a fly in this ointment. The citizens of Covington live in fear of a predator that lives in the woods surrounding them. This predator is called simply  'Those We Don't Speak Of', and the village and the creatures have been at a truce for many years, neither going into the others territory. The village even has in place a boundary, manned with guards who watch every night, ready to shout a warning.

And they also follow certain rituals to appease these creatures. They don’t wear or use the color Red, even to the point of pulling flowers from the ground and destroying them. They only wear yellow when near the woods, since that color seems to repulse them. In many ways, as much as the people love their village, they are held hostage by the woods that surround them, forbidden to enter them.

But, young Lucius Hunt wants to travel into the woods, to the other side of them to the towns that exist out there. He wants to bring in medicine that could help others, and might have saved little Daniel.

Appealing to the Elders, of whom one of them is his mother (Weaver) he is refused and goes back to his work.

As time passes, the village comes under minor attacks by the creatures, and many feel that the truce that has held for so long is about to explode and violently. Animals are butchered and left uneaten, and Red slashes have appeared on the doors of some of the houses.

On one night, the alarm is sounded, and all the people flee to the safety of their cellars. Only young Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) stands at the door, refusing to go in waiting until Lucius comes to her.

It is only after a terrible incident befalls Lucius that Ivy forces her father (played by William Hurt) to allow her to go through the forest. He can’t go, because he gave his word that he would never leave the Village.

Blessing Ivy with certain rocks that he has promised her and her escorts will protect them, Ivy sets off. After only a few hours, the first of the party stops, refusing to go on. The other lasts one night, and Ivy is left alone in the dark woods.

They are always dark to Ivy, since she is blind from childhood. Left to wander through the forest, this blind girl goes on, to seek help for the man she loves more then anything in the world.

Shyamalan is known for quirky stories and weird situations and here he delivers both in a way that many will never expect. The story could almost be an analogy for many societies today, who wish to separate themselves from the rest of humanity.

There are whites, African Americans, Asians, Islamic, Christians and Jews who want to  have a place of their own, away from everyone different, or not like themselves. They think that by being apart, they won’t have the same problems of society.

But, even in the Village there are problems. Blindness that might have been prevented, illness, death of children, mental problems, even bigotry still exist in some forms. What so many people have forgotten is that while “They” are different to us, too them, we are “They”.

But, I don’t know if Shyamalan meant to make a comment on humanity, of if he just wanted to make a good, spooky film.

I think he did both, but that is just my opinion. The town is beautiful, and the woods surrounding the Village are wonderfully dark and romantically forbidding. Yet at the same time, they embrace an image of innocence and freedom that cities can’t have.

Watching this film, and seeing the images of mist and light fog across the ground I was reminded of early mornings in North Carolina or the Tennessee Smoky Mountains.

The eerie times in the late dawn, when the mist hugs the ground and you are –sure- you see shapes moving in them. That was rather spooky, as well as nostalgic to me.

Shyamalan is a master of direction, with the ability to bring people into his films that you would never expect. I didn’t know until late this week before the film opened that William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver were even in the film. Yes, I tend to avoid as much as I can about a new film from M. Night Shyamalan so I can be as surprised as possible.

So far, I have never been that disappointed. He has always delivered, as with Hurt and Weaver.

When I first heard of them in these roles, I could not accept them. But, after watching them, seeing them become their characters, I can’t begin to see how I ever doubted them.

Joaquin Phoenix  was excellent as Lucius Hunt, willing to brave the woods for the society he was a part of, even willing to defy a mother (Weaver) he loved and respected. You could almost feel his frustration when talking to her, telling her that he can see some of the secrets that others can’t. Like the fact that the married Walker (Hurt) has romantic feelings for her since he never touches her.

His timing is wonderful, and you can almost believe that he is Lucius Hunt. His ability to get into the character is what sets him apart from other actors his age, and leads one to think that someday he might be an “Actor” and not just a movie star.

But the true treat of this film came from an unexpected source. The talented and attractive Bryce Dallas Howard. Yes, she is Ron Howard’s daughter, and at some points in the film you can see his features in her face. But let me tell you something, she has something he never had, no matter how good he was.

She has the determination to be Bryce Dallas Howard, not Ron’s Daughter. While Ron always seemed to drive towards a career behind the cameras, Bryce seems to want to control a camera from in front of it. She has control over every scene she is in. Her sense of timing is incredible, her emotions were amazing to watch.

For the amount of talent she displays, she is already an “Actor”. God help the others her age when she auditions for a part; they won’t stand a chance.

For Shyamalan, this film feels more like he has grown into it. He has already proven to the viewer that he is intelligent and not just another “One Hit Wonder”, and that he has the ability to keep making films that are of quality and substance.

And he still has the power to twist an audience around his fingers. Look for him in his standard cameo.

Rating:

(3 out of 4 stars)

Larry Stanley is the editor and publisher of Penguin Comics and Movies, located at http://www.penguincomics.net and has done over 500 movie reviews in his career. He is also a contributing reviewer to Cultcuts magazine (http://www.cultcuts.net) and Columbia360 (http://www.columbia360.com/) as well the magazine Devine Exploitation.

Want to discuss this, and other topics, with fellow fans?
Post your thoughts in the SJ Fanboy Forum now!