It Takes a Village
New Shayamalan Film Explores Fear and Boundaries

There is no way that The Village will be remembered as M. Night Shayamalan's best work. The story is very sedate, the action is minimal, and on the whole it is not very scary. Yet, when comparing it to MOST films that are made, The Village is a good film and deserves to be recognized as such. Seeing the worst film from Shayamalan is like seeing the worst game Michael Jordan ever played. True fans will be happy to see what M. Night does behind the camera and compare it to his other work.

Set in a rural agrarian society, The Village concerns an isolated community living on the border of a wood, where they have an uneasy pact with a group of creatures (called "those of whom we do not speak"). The woods belong to the creatures. The valley belongs to the villagers. How they got there, or why they chose to make this their home, is uncertain. Led by the village founder Edward Walker (William Hurt), they seem to be hiding from their pasts and have forsaken the towns for this quieter life.

As the film begins, a funeral for a boy is taking place, and soon Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix), one of the brave young men in the village, is petitioning the elders to let him cross through the woods to the towns where he could buy medicines. The village idiot (Adrien Brody) has evidently walked through the woods unharmed because of his "pure heart" and Lucius thinks that his noble purpose will likewise safeguard him. The elders reject his plea because things are already troubling between the villagers and those in the woods. Some are afraid that the creatures are going to break the treaty.

The film, as a whole, is an amazing allegory about fear and what we fear most. The villagers, at least those old enough to remember the towns, seem afraid of their pasts (mementos of which they keep locked in ominous black boxes stored beneath the stairs in each house). Each person tells stories throughout the film of a friend or loved one who was killed by bandits or thieves in the towns. Their fear of the towns seems stronger than their fear of the woods, which could explain why they settled in such dangerous territory.

The star of the film, however, is Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of director Ron Howard) who plays Ivy Walker, the blind daughter of the town founder. Her fearlessness stands in direct contrast to the fear in the village. When the creatures come into village one night, Ivy stands at the door -- her arm outstretched -- waiting for Lucius to come. She will not abandon him to the night to save herself. When a turn of events requires that someone leave the village, it is Ivy who ventures forth into the woods alone.

Throughout the film is a singular soundtrack composed by James Newton Howard and performed by Grammy award-winning violist Hillary Hahn. These solos are particularly fitting because The Village plays like a silent film. Dialogue is sparse, and even when it is used it seems almost unnecessary because the camera conveys the same emotion -- fear, tenderness, desperation. In fact, most of the truly riveting scenes have no dialogue at all. The music, instead, becomes another voice in the movie. The affect is a beautiful one.

To call The Village a horror movie is to oversimplify it in an effort to sell tickets. It is suspenseful and dramatic. It is scary (at times). But it there is nothing horrific about it. The truth is that it builds on the idea of fear and why we fear what we fear.

Fans of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs may not be able to make the leap to this quieter, more introspective film. Some may see it as predictable. Others may think it is a stupid premise. But fans of Shayamalan will catalog this film alongside the others for worthy contemplation when examining his body of work 20 years from now.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 108 min.