M. Night Shyamalan has been one of my favorite director/writers since
he unleashed the Sixth Sense upon unsuspecting audiences in 1999. Since
then he has continued to try to surprise audiences with each new movie
offering some sort of twist.
The village, his newest film, is just now hitting DVD and once again
his Hitchcockian ways prove that he is pretty good at surprising
audiences. The Village stars some very respectable names with William Hurt as
Edward Walker and Sigourney Weaver as Alice Hunt, leaders of a village
set in the last 1800's. This isloated village has been terrorized for
years but some sort of haunting creatures which have savaged their cattle
and population alike. A truce has been called after losses on both
sides with the Villagers promising never to cross the yellow flagged areas.
Children even make games of standing at the edge of the boundary as
long as they can until the noises and fear drive them back to safety.
The record holder as a child for longest to stand without running, now
an adult, is Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) who is swooned by Ed Walkers
oldest daughter Tabitha. However Lucius is in love instead with her
blinded younger sister Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) who in turn is followed
around by the mentally challenged Noah Percy (Adrien Brody). Yes folks
we have a triangle of love here with some parties getting the good old
broken heart, late ninteenth century style.
The film builds much of the drama around these impending romances and
the daunting frustration of Lucius to go into the woods past the
creatures and to safer parts of the world where better medicine might be
found. There's a series of unfortunate events that play up this battle
between fear and love. The drama and romance are of course supported by some
scary action.
Like many of Shyamalan's films, the creatures are hardly seen and
provoke a nice sense of fright among audiences. He builds the suspense well
in the film with of course his usual surprise release for audiences to
gasp at. While I enjoyed the film and the acting, The Village just
doesn't quite have the same punch as his earlier efforts.
The Disc:
Touchstone brings home The Village with a blazingly beautiful 1.85:1
widescreen anamorphic transfer that looks every bit as good as the other
top rated new releases. Even better than its transfer are the sounds
which fit this horror action movie to a tee. The Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
track sounds awesome using plenty of aura and surround to add tension and
chemistry to the screen's ongoing plots. This is one very good sounding
film.
Extras on the disc are bountiful and begin with "Deconstructing The
Village", your basic behind the scenes piece which should not be
view before seeing the film. Presented with an almost overpolished and
overedited look, this is one of the better fluff pieces I have seen in
recent months.
Next are some Deleted Scenes with Director's Introducution which
give M. Night a chance to explain the reasoning behind the removal of
certain scenes in the film. As with his other films, I found the deleted
scenes to have been mostly interesting enough to have been included in
the feature length.
Probably the best extra on the disc is a Special M. Night Shyamalan
home movie which gives viewers a taste of what M. Night can do when
he has some extra free time on his hands.
Finally there's a special called "Bryce's Diary", which, as well
as a photo gallery and of course trailers and previews.
bottom line:
The Village is still a really good suspense thriller to be watched on a
chilly night. M. Night has made better films but even this being his
likely weakest is still a very good film worth seeing.
By - Brian Gray
1/2
