The Village (2004)
The Village was a 2004 historical drama by M Night Shyamalan, about a community haunted by creatures that live in the woods. As the story unfolds, complexities come to light and it’s soon revealed that nothing is as it seems.
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I’d never seen this film before, but I’m aware of Shyamalan as a director and I picked this up for free. I thought it would be perfect for spooky season, and wasn’t sure what to expect though the premise seemed ominous.
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The standout for me was Bryce Dallas Howard, known for the Jurassic World franchise - it’s even more impressive to know that this was her first movie role, after being scouted by Shyamalan while performing as Rosalind in As You Like It. She plays the central character within the plot, who happens to be blind, and this is always difficult territory because historically actors who aren’t visually impaired playing blind characters either come across as patronising, or mocking and ableist. I think Bryce’s portrayal however was very honest and sympathetic, perhaps helped by how well rounded her character was; we get to see her joy and sorrow, fear and bravery. She ventures through the unknown for the one she loves, a pivotal moment shifting what appears to be a thriller into a story of love.
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We also get a lead performance from Joaquin Phoenix, who is the first person to suggest going into the woods after the loss of a village member. I enjoyed the emotion he brought to the role and Sigourney Weaver as his protective, widowed mother too. Adrien Brody also stars in the film and I think he’s a great actor, though he plays a mentally-disabled character and this can only ever fall on stereotypes and come across as insensitive. It seems that Shyamalan has a pattern of treating disabled characters as the villains in his work, and even going back to my praise of Bryce’s performance, as mentioned in an article I’ve linked below her characters blindness is also used as a plot device to build suspense and garner ‘inspiration’ for an audience that will only ever pity disabled people or use them to feel better about their own lives.
The ending for me didn’t do the story justice - it felt like an anticlimax, and an original intended ending was for the movie to close as Ivy crosses the wall into the modern world, and I think for the viewer this would have been a greater conclusion as everything that came before is shattered.
The special features contains behind-the-scenes footage, documenting the construction of village buildings to the actors first days on set and all the obstacles along the way. There’s even a lovely diary sequence narrated by Bryce, giving a first person perspective of the project written in an older dialect. Like all of Shyamalan’s films, a short movie from his archives is included, from when he was a kid. I think this is a wonderful idea and reason why we should check out the bonus content to find exclusive footage like this. Seeing this project come together, it’s clear that the cast became very close and this always makes a movie feel more special. I think it’s worth watching if you haven’t already.
Sources/further reading:
https://farragomagazine.com/article/farrago/Column-M-Night-Shyamalan-and-the-Ableist-Myth/
