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Alive 13

The Village


DVD Review



        M. Night Shyamalan, who made a big impression with "The sixth 
        Sense" and "Sleepy Hollow" is back with a movie that doesn't use 
        many shock effects but drags you slowly into a story which takes 
        place in a 19th century period village. The small community 
        which lives in that village seems to be completely cut off from 
        the rest of the world. Lots of years ago the elder people from 
        the cottage had left the outside world behind to start their own 
        world. Money, violence or crimes are completely unknown to the 
        younger people in the village. It seems to be a perfect place 
        but nobody is allowed to travel past a well marked border which 
        completely encloses the village.

        Across the border in the nearby woods seem to live some
        mysterious and dangerous creatures. Somehow there seems to by
        treaty between the villagers and "Those we do not speak of"
        which keeps them out of each others territory. The treaty hasn't
        been violated for a long time and everything seems to be in some
        kind of balance. A balance which gets destabilized by the young
        Lucious Hunt, who dared to take a stroll into the woods, perhaps
        to test his theory that "Those we do not speak of" don't harm
        the innocent. Anyway the violation of the treaty causes some
        more or less chilling warnings to appear, starting with the
        finding of several skinned animals.


        The warnings become more and more serious, when something
        happens inside the village that causes a strong need of help
        from outside. A young blind woman is allowed to try to pass
        through the woods to get some help from "the towns".

        Without giving away too much of the story, which is never a good
        idea in a Shyamalan movie it's perhaps a good idea to destroy
        some illusions about it. The movie basically is a love story put
        into a disturbing setting. It's also accompanied by some more or
        less philosophical questions, which surface here and there. It's
        surely not a shocker, nor a horror movie; you won't find much
        gore in it. However if you are willing to accept that, it works
        quite well. The story although being quite simply, has some nice
        twists and turns as well as some distractions built in which
        won't work anymore if I would tell you more about the story.

        The movie works quite well because of the convincing work of the
        actors. Besides it seems there are no breaks in the movie-logic,
        even some questions which might arise later are explained in a
        believable way. Well to make it short: "The Village" is surely
        worth a rent, it might be also worth a buy if the price is
        right. I got it for less than 10 EUR which is a good value for
        the money. Keep in mind the story is advancing at a slow pace
        beside the few jumpy scenes, but the characters are well
        modelled and I found it quite enjoyable. However I am not sure
        that Shyamalan's fans will like it, because there are not many
        shock effects. Tension is build here and there but it never gets
        really exiting.

                                           Cyclone for Alive, 2006-02-28



Appendix A


                           [Additional Information]

        Title .................................... The Village
        Production Year .......................... 2004
        Runtime .................................. 108 min

        Director ................................. M. Night Shyamalan

        Cast

        Bryce Dallas Howard ..................... Ivy Walker
        Joaquin Phoenix ......................... Lucius Hunt
        Adrien Brody ............................ Noah Percy
        William Hurt ............................ Edward Walker
        Sigourney Weaver ........................ Alice Hunt
        Brendan Gleeson ......................... August Nicholson

Alive 13