The Village
At this Amish-like community in Pennsylvania, everyone is in his or her right place. You've got the village elders, headed by Edward Walker (William Hurt), running this place of isolation while the rest of the population does the everyday activities. The two most important rules that bind the community? Never show off the color red and never go into the forest. If you do, you may never come back. Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) has the urge to venture through the forest and travel to the towns but the elders forbid it. Edward's daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), cares deeply for Lucius as well as Noah (Adrien Brody), a mentally challenged man. When an accident occurs, the call to reach the towns is renewed in order to get medicines. Edwards thus is reluctantly forced to send Ivy through the woods while he, Lucius' mother Alice (Sigourney Weaver), and others reflect on the true nature of the village.

So we're told M. Night Shyamalan directed this feature, and you know what? All the elements of a Shyamalan movie were there. The creepy music. The dark places. The slow pacing. What was missing? An interesting story to tie it all together. Nothing compelled me to be fearful of what lurked in the woods surrounding the community, a perception helped moreso by their brief appearance, nor were there the light moments to identify with the characters and so what we're left with is a 19th-century period piece that really isn't a very good one. Our feeling of detachment from the film leads into an underwhelming ending which leaves the reaction of "oh, yeah, I guess that works." The leading stars are left mired in a script that Data from Star Trek could read better. Phoenix, with a surprisingly limited role, avoids the bad lines and had the most potential in the film, but that wasn't used. The focus instead turned to the newcomer Howard, whose performance as a blind woman wasn't too convincing, but nevertheless was a bright spot in this dreary film. So in a switch, Shyamalan's handling of the film is much better than his script, but it doesn't save it at all. 1.5 stars