By Joaquin Phoenix
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Related tags: m night shyamalan(67), horror(39), suspense(38), joaquin phoenix(36), mystery(30), bryce dallas howard(21), dvd(16), adrien brody(9), sigourney weaver(9), psychological thriller(9), fantasy(8), monsters(4)
Review & Description
A close knit community lives with the fear of the mysterious danger that lives in the woods around them. Their fear is so great that none dare venture beyond the borders. When one individual plans to step beyond the boundaries his bold move threatens to change their way of life. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 06/06/2006 Starring: Joaquin Phoenix Adrien Brody Run time: 108 minutes Rating: Pg13Even 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 Read more
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