My wife and I saw M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Village' last week. I won't get into the premise of the movie, by now most people have seen the trailer and read the reviews. What I will get into is how Shyamalan continues to impress me with his ability to tell such vibrant human stories set against strange occurences.
You see, what most people fail to understand about his films as that they are not horror movies, they are not movies about the supernatural or superheroes. They are movies about human emotion.
'The Sixth Sense' was about forgiveness, set in a modern ghost story.
'Unbreakable' was about self-discovery, set against a modern tale of a superhero.
'Signs' was about faith. It just happened to be a different way of retelling H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds.'
For some reason, a lot of people miss this about Shyamalan's films. I have heard that a lot of people felt cheated or misled by 'The Village.' I can't really understand that, because the movie is about innocence, and maintaining innocence, not about bogeymen that may or may not be real.
'The Village' is not the best of his movies, but it is not the worst either. In fact, I don't think any the four films I've mentioned were anything but excellent. They are just excellent in a way that a lot of people don't seem to understand.
In a day and age when people crave instant gratification at the lowest common mental denominator, M. Night Shyamalan is brave enough to deliver sophisticated, intelligent, meaningful entertainment.