The Village: A thud of a twist

Until something better comes along, The Sixth Sense will remain my favorite ghost movie because of the performances, the mood (the result of a brilliant technical orchestration) and the very clever twist at the end.

Released in 1999, The Sixth Sense is by M. Night Shyamalan, a filmmaker born in India, but was raised in America. From then on, I always looked forward to watching his succeeding films: Unbreakable and Signs– neither of which is able to surpass the wonderful cinematic qualities of The Sixth Sense.

And now comes M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, The Village, where we see people as fashionable as Laura Ingalls and her family in Little House on the Prairie. The people in this place called Covington Woods have simple lives and have isolated themselves away from the violence and the complexities of the world beyond. In fact, they are not supposed to go beyond the edge of the village (the gillage – or sa gilid ng village?) because there will be consequences – one of which is an unwelcome visit from the bogeyman who looks like Little Red Riding Hood minus the Shirley Temple curls.

It is this fear of the wicked people from what they call "the towns" that screws up their otherwise idyllic life in the village. As for the moviegoers at this point, their biggest fear is the big disappointing thud that awaits them at the end of the film because you can already smell the supposedly surprise twist halfway through the movie. (The Village becomes The Ho-hum from hereon.

In one scene nearing the climax, the leader of the elders, Edward Walker (William Hurt) reveals a secret to his daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), but before that tells her "to do her best not to scream." Well, he should have tried telling that to the viewers and they would have all screamed to his face "Harang!" and promptly asked for a refund.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to point out the flaws and the loopholes in the screenplay of The Village without giving away the entire story. But for those who have already seen it, just try and figure this one out. The location of the village is supposedly in Pennsylvania (a place that should be familiar to our filmmaker because that was where he was raised), which is halfway between busy New York and equally busy Washington D.C. Now, don’t the villagers ever look up and see, you know, "it’s a bird, it’s a _____, it’s Superman!" Oops, did I give that away? Sorry! (The movie is already on its third week in Metro Manila theaters anyway.)

Before I get carried away and give out more clues about that resounding thud of a twist, allow me to say that The Village is technicallly superior – especially the music, which creates the appropriate mood for a film of this genre.

But the technical elements alone of this movie cannot make up for the rotten premise of The Village. (Oh, I can’t accept the fact that I’ve been had!)

Neither does the presence of the stellar cast succeed in drawing away the viewers’ attention from the bad storytelling. And what a waste of brilliant talents we see here in The Village: Oscar winners and perennial contenders William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Adrien Brody.

Brody is the most pathetic in his role as the village idiot – a part that could have been done better by the late Lito Anzures. The Village is Adrien Brody’s first film after winnning Best Actor for The Pianist (was he hit by the Oscar jinx?) and the Academy Award voters must now be considering a move to recall his trophy because of his participation in this M. Night Shyamalan project.

As for M. Night Shyamalan, the filmmaker I worshiped after watching The Sixth Sense, I swear I will start developing my sixth sense so that I’m not conned into watching just any of his movies. I promise to be more discriminating next time and not just jump into the theater only because an M. Night Shyamalan film is showing. (After his extremely boring Signs, I should have seen–but what else? – the signs!)

After the magnificent Sixth Sense and the disappointing Unbreakable, Signs and The Village, maybe M. Night Shyamalan should consider working on a film project with the title The Fluke–about a filmmaker who gets lucky with one movie and fails to duplicate his success in his succeeding projects.

Only he can put the appropriate ending to it.