The Village: Isolated Endings

The Village opened this weekend and is the 4th film from the Night Shyamalen producer/writer/director powerhouse. Night is principally a storyteller, so if you're looking for some sort of deeper message, this isn't the movie. If you are looking for a mystery and an almost surprising ending and have the time (and money) to spare then this is your thing.

The setting is a turn of the century (1897 is the given year) village, isolated from the rest of the world, and in some sort of mysterious truce with creatures that live in the woods. Some of the interesting things about this village is that there's absolutely no religion, nobody who really works (except for the poor schmuck that has to stand watch in the tower) and a cabal of Elders who keep secret lockboxes in their homes that they guard from their children. Other than that, life is idyllic and the only rituals have to do with the supposed creatures (the color red is outlawed in the town and you can't go outside the boundary).

When the creatures start making incursions into the village, the fear rachets up. But its really the young people who drive the plot forward. A love triangle results in the stabbing of Lucius (played by Joaquin Phoenix). While Lucius lies dying, his blind girlfriend, played by the daughter of Ron Howard, is sent out in the woods, to get medical supplies from town.

Without giving much away, the spotlight then turns back on the Elders and the secrets that they are keeping. Suffice to say, they have isolated themselves for more reasons than just the creatures in the woods. One by one, we learn that they have all had tragedies in their lives before coming to the Village and this led to the isolationism and shunning of the real world.

Despite the problems this has caused, including more tragedies (the film opens with the funeral for a child who has apparently died for lack of medical care), in the end the film affirms this isolationism as the correct response to fear and grief.

What really creates dissonance is that this choice is that whole thing is made possible only because the lead Elder (played by William Hurt) is incredibly rich. And furthermore, the blind girl encounters nothing but charity when she ventures into the real world so it can't be all that bad.

And that's why I say, don't go to this film expecting to discuss any deep ideas afterwards - instead, go to see a finely crafted, and mostly well-acted (Signorney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt) and beautifully filmed movie.

Recommended venue: Wait for the DVD rental (if you can stand the ending possibly being spoiled).

Grade: 3/5 stars.