THE VILLAGE

There is a lot to admire in this 2004 film by M. Night Shyamalan: the cinematography by Roger Deakins, the score by James Howard, a terrific cast, and even (somewhat to my surprise) the director's screenplay.

All of which makes the derision heaped upon it (44% on Rotten Tomatoes) a bit difficult to understand. 

Some of that may simply have been that critics were keen to take the director down a peg or two, for whatever reason.

But of course the elephant in the room here is the ending.  Roger Ebert said of it "It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore."  Harsh!

I guess the problem is that up to that point Shyamalan's main quality as a director had been seen as his ability to deliver a twist ending, as evidenced by 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable'.  And it is fair to say that judged by the endings of those two films 'The Village' does disappoint. 

On the other hand, the film before this, 'Signs' doesn't have a twist ending as such so maybe it would be wrong to view 'The Village' entirely through this prism.  And anyway I actually quite enjoy the ending (so there!).

But even if you find the ending underwhelming or just plain ridiculous the story up to that point is both engaging and creepy, containing a touching love story between Lucius (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard).  The latter in particular gives an outstanding performance and I am somewhat mystified as to why she hasn't gone on to have a stellar career.  

On top of this the film does have some genuinely scary or unsettling moments.  

So well worth a rewatch would be my verdict. 

RATING: ✓ If You've Nothing Better To Do