about
You're reading a really old version of matt-thornton's website. For example, if you're looking at the movie reviews... you'll notice that none of them are of recent films. Indeed, I leave them here for posterity's sake, but I doubt very much that they'll get updated anytime soon. So have a giggle.
You might, if you're lucky, find something recent from Matt at his blog matt's debates. Kernow bys vyken.
The Village
the one line review:
what's the point?
the overview
M. Knight Shyamallallyanalmanyan is trying to build himself a reputation of making this supernatural thrillers with quirky plots and jumpy scary bits. He did OK with The Sixth Sense (regardless of how predictable it was) and Unbreakable wasn't bad either. This again is interesting, but at the end of it all, you wonder exactly what the point was.
the plot:
Set in the 1900's, a bunch of people live in a village isolated from anywhere by a bigass forest. There's the typical village atmosphere, all a bit clan like, all a bit incestuous, and people are very protective over their ways. We're also led to believe that there's a bunch of beasty creature things ("Those of which we do not speak") living in the forest, with which they have an agreement - the beasties will stay in the forest, and the people will stay in the village, and it'll be all good.
One day, Lucius (Phoenix) gets stabbed by the special guy in the camp, and his blind girlfriend (Howard) has to brave the woods, to get to the towns to find some medicines.
the verdict:
(this bit contains spoilers, so be warned...).
OK, so it turns out that the beasties aren't real, they were just made up by the village elders to protect the way of life in the village. They have a few costume things, and every now and then bring them out to scare the people who live in the village, reminding them that they're real. All the elders of the village had some nasty thing happen to them when they were younger, which is when they left the towns, and started the village in the middle of this big ol' forest. Which incidentally is a nature preserve, and not a forest at all. And it's not the 1900's, it's more like 1995, as we find out when the blind girl makes her way out of the forest and discovers a tarmac road and a Land Rover.
It's all quite Dogville-esque (that Nicole Kidman yawn alert) where you have the small minded community thinking where they'll do anything to protect their way of life.
Trouble is, what's the point? It's a very tired premise for a film, with all the sub-plots done time and time again. It ends abruptly too, and you\'re left thinking "Is that it?". Sure there's the love stories and the almost creepy moments when the beasty comes out. But that's it really.
So, don't bother with this film. It's frankly not worth it.
(P.S. Please please please do not rent Dogville either).
All movie reviews
