The Village

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
PG-13	for a scene of violence and frightening situations
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody

Reviewer: Nate Clarke

In discussing this film, I have tried to give away as few details as possible. But I fear that some people may be disappointed if they read this before seeing the film. So be warned, I have not given away the essential plot points, but you may be able to deduce them from reading this.

On a recent trip to St. Louis I met a 14 year old girl growing up with AIDS in the urban center of St. Louis. She acquired the disease from her mother and had, on several occasions, narrowly escaped death. My response when hearing her story was, "Life shouldn't be that way." Something seems horribly misplaced when a girl has to worry more about medications and survival than jump rope and the latest boy band.

The Village is about a group of people dealing with the similar randomness, absurdity and even ruthlessness of life in a hurting society. Each member of the village's elders has been affected by severe violence — rape, murder, robbery. They have decided that life apart from the world is easier and safer than life amongst the criminals of society. Their shared motto is that "Life shouldn't be that way."

In this we can understand and relate to their desire for peace — their collective conviction that escape is easier than engagement and transformation, especially when deep emotional wounds are involved. But like most values in life, there is a cost to their convictions. In the case of The Village, it means the fear of the outside can only be contained, not entirely avoided. The woods around their hamlet are inhabited by creatures that must be appeased and avoided. Interestingly, the fear of these creatures gives a certain credibility to the mission of the villagers. They live in this community in order to avoid the threat from outside, and it is only by following careful regulations that their world can remain peaceful and tranquil.

So it is for many years these villagers have lived separate and apart from the world they sought to escape. However, death and suffering have not passed over their community in favor of more fertile soil. Instead, the village is confronted with a dilemma when violence comes from within, from the weakest and most vulnerable of places. This predicament calls into question the entire world these villagers have created.

In response, Ivy Walker, the blind daughter of the village's leader, is compelled to leave the village to find medical supplies for her wounded lover. What she finds outside the village has the potential to undermine all that the elders of the village have worked so tirelessly to create.

We experience this journey as Ivy Walker does. The camera is confined to her perspective (if she could see) leaving me squirming in my seat asking, "Why can't we just have the camera pan back 30 feet?" What Ivy knows, we know. As Ivy feels fear, we tremble; As her confidence grows, we relax. She is the compass through which we experience the film.

M. Night Shymalan has gained a reputation amongst some critics as a director who uses slight of hand and trickery to wow his audiences. The claims are that his films rest solely on a twist at the end of the film. This seems an unfair challenge to his films and a pigeon holing based on Sixth Sense. Unbreakable held no final twist, and while Signs made an important connection at the end of the film, it didn't radically change the way one viewed the film on a second viewing. Beyond that, Shymalan does seem interested in existential questions. What to one person is an arrogant filmmaker fooling with an audience, to another is a thoughtful exploration of faith, calling or fear. His films aim higher than just scaring the daylights out of people — they cause me to reflect, consider and ponder. Certainly Shymalan is a master of suspense, yet his visual vocabulary, cinematic vistas and revelatory story telling are equally compelling. His films, The Village included, are a joy to watch (and kept me holding onto my wife).

The Village could have easily turned into a political or social indictment of conservative "fear mongers" or the stereotypical Hollywood rant against religion. Yet because Shymalan is willing to create a group of elders with whom we sympathize, simple categories do not fit these people. They have not created this world out of some power trip or psychopathic fear of death. Rather they fear for the future of their families.

Is this fear enough to justify the position in which they place their family? It seems as we as a nation deal with the fear of terrorism and as we as Christians deal with the fear of a watered down faith, this is a fundamental question we must answer. How much should a fear of the outside dictate and form the values that we hold central to our character and being?

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