Wednesday, August 25

Dare

Last night, I made a decision to break from the routine, and headed off from my familiar borders into the darkness... of a movie theater. On offer this time around- M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

Somewhere surrounded by thick, impenetrable woods, is an idyllic paradise of a settlement- a village living in the old ways. These people, led by a charismatic elder named Walker (WIlliam Hurt), raise their own crops and tend their own herds, eating together under the open sky and talking in old, stilted english... It all kinda reminded me of Hogwarts. Oh well, all is not well in this little world of mild-mannered citizens and little hidden secrets. The woods that surround the village are, according to the elders, ruled by The Ones We Do Not Speak Of (Hmmm... kinda like You Know Who in Harry Potter...). These unnameables are creatures who seem to delight in howling from afar, leaving skinless carcasses on the ground, and on occasion stalking about in the night sowing fear wherever they go.
To protect themselves from the creatures, the village has several rules. RED, or 'the bad color', is not allowed since it is said to attract the creatures. YELLOW is a safe color, and if you wear it, you will not be harmed. No one is allowed to enter the woods, for to do so may break the truce that has kept man and beast apart for so long.

When a young man named Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Pheonix) asks to go through the woods to the outside world for a mission of mercy, things begin to unravel and the village may never be the same again...

This film has been marketed mostly as a scary monster in the woods movie, and I have to say that it is not that. At it's core, it's really a film about secrets, about lies and about fearing what's out there. It's about finding the courage to break rules and orders in favor of what's really important. Which finally explains my weird intro spiel to this article. Heh.

Unfortunately, the film can get pretty dragging and a guy behind me kept muttering 'I want my money back' after the big reveal... Really, when the curtains are raised on the 'twist', you'll either love it or hate it. Me? Actually, I like The Village. Perhaps it was helped by the fact that I came in knowing the Big Secret. I loved the film's beauty... Mr. Shaymalan's movies are always lookers- them with their long, long, lingering looks- and the story is actually pretty cool. Performances were subdued throughout, which gave lovely newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard (the daughter of director Ron Howard) the chance to shine as the head elder's blind daughter with a heart made of both steel and gold. Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Gleeson are also in town, so look them up.

All in all though, I enjoyed my visit to The Village. And with stuff like Catwoman and Aliens VS Predator lurking around, it may be the safest place to go these days.

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