The Village

12:03.26 - Sunday 9th January 2005   (Link to This Entry)

Strange one this. The Village of the title, set in 1907, is located in a small valley on the edge of a large wood, in which are said to live mythical creatures with whom the elders of the village have reached an accommodation - the villagers don't set foot in the wood and the creatures - aka Those We Do Not Name - stay out of the valley.

Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) The Village is a strange little film. Packing familiar names such as Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Gleeson, it's nevertheless a very slow film that feels quite hard to get into for a long time. The viewer does feel a sense of community amongst the characters, but at times it seems more like a documentary than a film.

Since this is an adult M Night Shyamalan movie, there's obviously going to be a twist. The first thing the intelligent viewer starts to ponder is the nature of these creatures in the wood, since they appear frequently throughout the film. An advance reader may leap to the correct conclusion before it is revealed, but this still doesn't give any hints as to the real twist that comes towards the end. It's not a particularly shocking one, but it's a thinker and no mistake.

Though well filmed and well written, The Village will not appeal to the majority of people. There's no action and very little suspense, and this may have resulted in the film receiving poorer reviews thas it perhaps deserved. I can recommend this film to the thinkers that I know, but I fear most people will get bored with it.

Most Revealing Moment / Rating
Where Ivy is taken to the 'Old Shed That Must Not Be Used'. 7/10

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Collateral

12:21.41 - Sunday 9th January 2005   (Link to This Entry)

After trying to shake his good-guy image in Minority Report, Tom Cruise finally goes all-out baddie in Michael Mann's Collateral, the story of a cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) who picks up seemingly cynical businessman Vincent (Cruise) who in turn wants to visit five people in one night on a whistle-stop tour of Los Angeles.

Vincent turns out to be a hitman, and would have had a much easier time if his first victim hadn't nose-dived out of the window of his apartment. With his true intentions revealed, Vincent now has to ensure his driver doesn't flee or drop him in it, while Max is all the time looking for a way out of this desperate situation.

The camera work on Collateral is gorgeous, reminding me of Bill Murray's taxi scenes in Lost in Translation. Mann manages to capture the loneliness in a city of millions where everyone ignores everybody else. Vincent tells the tale of a man who died on the train, riding around in circles for hours before anyone notices. With the skilled direction and stylish visuals, you actually get a sense of that loneliness and isolation.

Throughout the film we get little glimpses into Max's life, and we find him to be a little bit of a dreamer - one of those who has an idea but who has never carried it further. It's easy to empathise with Max and Cruise is excellent as world-weary hitman Vincent. The end of the film is perhaps a little predictable (while being a little unbelievable, considering Vincent is a professional killer) but it doesn't really suffer for that.

That 'Just-how-cool-is-Vincent' moment / Rating:
The entire Jazz club scene. 9/10

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