The Village - 2004 film review

The Village is a film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan dating back to 2004. When it was first released, it did well at the box office but caused some controversy. This was because Shyamalan had made his name with horror movies that boasted a spectacular final twist and there was a feeling among critics such as Roger Ebert that this time the 'twist' was a dismal let-down. In recent years, there's been some re-evaluation of the movie and I go along with the view that the negative reaction was more about the critics' expectations than the quality of the film.

Because there is indeed a major twist - arguably, a double twist - in this film, I need to express myself cryptically if I'm to avoid spoiling it. And I do want to avoid spoilers because this is a film worth watching - and perhaps, like Midsommar, worth watching again once you know what the director was trying to do.  

The village of the title is in Pennsylvania, and it's home to a small and very isolated community. Their dress, way of talking and customs are all highly traditional. This isn't an Amish community, but it has something of the old-world feel of Amish life so memorably presented in the Harrison Ford film Witness. The Chief Elder is Edward Walker, played by that fine actor William Hurt and he has a beautiful blind daughter, Ivy Elizabeth, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who falls for Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), son of Alice Hunt (Sigourney Weaver). From the names I've mentioned, you can see that it's a stellar cast, supported by Adrien Brody, who plays Noah, a disturbed young man who fancies Ivy. 

The village is surrounded by Covington Woods and there's a great deal of fear about mysterious creatures believed to live in the woods. The creatures wear red garments and red is a feared colour; a sort of mustardy yellow is a 'safe' colour. There are watchtowers and brightly lit lanterns, all part of the scheme to keep the creatures - said to have a 'truce' with the villagers at the moment - at bay. The Elders have their secrets, some of which appear to be locked away in mysterious boxes. What is going on?

I enjoyed this film and although it didn't develop in the way I expected, I think that Shyamalan does a very good job in entertaining the viewer, so long as one doesn't allow oneself to be swayed by preconceived ideas.

Avatar

While I was on holiday, the chance arose to see James Cameron’s acclaimed movie Avatar in a large shipboard cinema, and so – although I hadn’t planned to watch the film any time soon- I grabbed the opportunity. And I’m very glad I did, even without 3-D glasses to admire the amazing special effects.

It’s essentially an adventure story, with various classis elements. In 2154, a paralysed ex-marine, Jake Sully, replaces his recently deceased twin brother in a mission to distant Pandora, a mysterious place that has natural resource (the oddly named Unobtanium) needed by visitors from the dying Earth. Pandora is home to the Na’vi, and the idea is for Jake and colleagues to morph into avatars who are human-Na’vi hybrids, with a view to establishing links with the indigenous tribe.

Jake falls for a Na’vi lady, and the tribe’s way of life, but this precipitates a furious battle between the incomers (led by a caricatured military hard man) and the natives. The messages of the script may be unsophisticated, and the script is at times banal – I can’t understand why you would spend so much money on spectacular visuals and then settle for tin-eared dialogue - but the action is engrossing. Even though the film is very long, I was never bored.

Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver are effective in their lead roles, but the lasting memory I will take from Avatar is of Cameron’s brilliance as a film-maker. His movie is a fine piece of light entertainment, and literally wonderful to watch.

Vantage Point

The title of the 2008 action thriller Vantage Point suggests the nature of the story. The planned (or apparent) assassination of an American president is seen from various different perspectives. And each time we see the events leading up to the attack, we learn more about the complex plot.

Multiple viewpoint stories can work very effectively in the crime genre. Wilkie Collins proved this long ago with The Moonstone, and in a very different way, Vantage Point reminds us that, although a single viewpoint can give a narrative a great deal of emotional power, multi-viewpoints afford great potential for story development.

I liked this film a great deal. Dennis Quaid is very good as the secret service agent who is one of the few good guys, and William Hurt is, as usual, splendid as the President: nobody does bafflement as well as Hurt, I think. The very good cast also includes Sigourney Weaver.

It’s a film that is so fast-moving and convoluted that it will repay more than one viewing. Vantage Point is not an in-depth, character-driven film, but very strong on plot complication and drama. If that’s to your taste, I think you will probably enjoy it as much as I did.