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The Main Characters
--Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the blind daughter of Edward who goes out of the village when her soon to be husband is stabbed.
--Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) wants to leave the village to get medical supplies. When the monsters start coming into their land, he still wants to go. Unforunately, he is stabbed by Noah and its Ivy that goes to cure him.
--Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) is a mentally challenged man who is obsessed with Ivy. When he learns Ivy is going to marry Lucius, he stabs him.
--Edward Walker (William Hurt) is Ivy’s father and one of the head elders.
--Alice Hunt (Sigourney Weaver) is Lucius’ mother and is also one of the head elders.
The Setting
1897, in a rural village.
The Plot
The film opens with the whole town gathering for a funeral for someone’s young son. We don’t know what is going but we learn soon enough. The small rural Amish-like village from 1897 is surrounded by forests. Forests where Those Who Must Not Be Mentioned lurk. TWMNBM are monsters, but luckily, a pact was made between the humans and Those… where they don’t cross the boundries set up around the peripheral of the village. The villagers also don’t keep the color red since Those… like the color red.
Of course, all is not well in the village. Lucius Hunt, a quiet somewhat stoic man wants to leave the village, through the forest where Those dwell, and get medicine so no one will die anymore. The village elders are ghastly against this idea, and in fact, the rash of dead skinned animals from Those keeps everyone wanting to stay. Lucius still wants to go. He even develops a relationship with Ivy Walker, the blind, red-haired daughter of head elder Edward. She is also very good friends with Noah Percy, someone who we in modern terms would call mentally challenged. He has a bit of an obsession with Ivy.
Lucius, being a bit head-strong, wanders into the forest. That night, Those come into the village and mark every door with a red slash and days later kill all the livestock. Everyone is scared, except Lucius, who still wants to go. Meanwhile, he even builds a relationship with Ivy and the two plan on marrying soon. When Noah learns of this, he stabs Lucius, almost fatally. Lucius is in a coma now. This spurs Ivy to plead with her father and the elders to leave the village and get the medicince, and they grant that.
My Review
M. Night Shymalan is riding high on the success of three very good movies, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs (which I loved). Every director is going to have his bad movies and this was his. This movie was quite unenjoyable for a number of reasons. First, the “shock,” or “twist” ending was way too contrived and the whole movie was built on this one twist coming up and it really hurt the movie. The acting as a whole was really forgettable, though Bryce Howard was excellent in her first feature role and made this movie somewhat watchable. Overall though, the movie just collapses in on itself and when you realize what the twist is, you can literally see the film’s flimsy foundation cave in. Shymalan get’s a free pass this time, but I will be expecting a lot more out of his next film.
Final Rating
*1/2
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