The Village

Empire magazine gave this a four star review and said that its critical pasting elsewhere stems from Shyamalan's intentions being misunderstood. The controversial twist ending that he ha sbecome famous for was so silly, they said, that any merit the film had dissipates in laughter. They also say that Mr S. had intended to reveal the ending at the beginning of the film, thus changing the mood completely - I would have liked it much more if this were the case. Some spine chilling photography and techniques do give this a spooky edge, and Joaquin Phoenix does nothing wrong in an interesting role, but Adrian Brody is miscast and William Hurt is awful as the village elder. Personally I saw the ending coming a mile off (but then again I was one of the few who sussed The Sixth Sense) and couldn't believe he was actually going through with it! It is preposterous; like a short story from an anthology of novice sci-fi writers. Cinematically there were some extraordinary moments, but the whole was too daft to care about. 4.5/10 Kx