The Village

M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, The Village, has a lot in common with the rest of his films. A: I like it and B: There's an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone ending. Although all of Knight's movies have been "formulaic" so far, they all manage (and I haven't seen Signs) to have a unique enough story to keep the formula interesting.

The only problem with this formula, is I found myself wanting to watch this movie just because I wanted to solve the puzzle. I didn't go into viewing the Village like I would other movies. I saw it more as a puzzle to solve, so I spent the majority of my moviegoing experience trying to guess the who's, whens and whys of what was going on, and that sort of distracted me from watching a really good movie.

The Village is a small colonial town, located in a valley surrounded by woods on all sides. Beyond the woods is the unknown..."towns" where evil people lived, and the woods are populated with creatures who won't bother the villagers as long as they don't venture away from the village.

Nnight's use of language and subtle visual cues make this a very entertaining mystery. Before seeing the Village, I had an idea of what the "secret" was, and I was pretty on-target, so it was interesting to see how it all worked together and unfolded.

There's an even bigger twist than the ending in the film, where the central character shifts. It's a very abrupt scene, but lays the groundwork for the films resolution.

It would be nice to see Night break formula in the future, just to see what else he can do... or I'd like to go into one of his movies with a clean slate and let all the surprises and twist actually be "surprising."

If you liked Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, you'll probably like the Village as well.

THUMBS UP