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The Village (2004)
Front Cover Actor
Adrien Brody
Judy Greer
Bryce Dallas Howard
William Hurt
Movie Details
Language English
Audience Rating PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Running Time 108 mins
Country USA
Color Color
Plot
Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does in The Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim," an episode of The Twilight Zone starring Cliff Robertson that originally aired in 1961. Even if you're unfamiliar with that Rod Serling scenario, you'll have a good chance of guessing the surprise, which ranks well below The Sixth Sense and Signs on Shyamalan's shock-o-meter. That leaves you to appreciate Shyamalan's proven strengths, including a sharp eye for fear-laden compositions, a general sense of unease, delicate handling of fine actors (alas, most of them wasted here, save for Bryce Dallas Howard in a promising debut), and the cautious concealment of his ruse, which in this case involves a 19th-century village that maintains an anxious truce with dreadful creatures that live in the forbidden woods nearby. Will any of this take anyone by genuine surprise? That seems unlikely, since Emperor Shyamalan has clearly lost his clothes in The Village, but it's nice to have him around to scare us, even if he doesn't always succeed. --Jeff Shannon
Personal Details
Seen It Yes
Index 968
Collection Status In Collection
Links Amazon US
Product Details
Edition Widescreen Edition
Format DVD
Region Region 1
786936242867
Release Date 1/11/2005
Subtitles French; Spanish
Nr of Disks/Tapes 1