A closed-off 19th Century community must send one of its own (Bryce Dallas Howard, as the local blind woman) through the woods into town to collect medicine, after tragedy strikes. The town’s elders, including Howard’s father (William Hurt, in full-on boring and depressed mode, like he’d rather be in another film), say it is forbidden to enter the woods, for fear of upsetting the creatures believed to inhabit them. They are referred to only as Those We Do Not Speak Of, and apparently they don’t much like visitors…
I’ve liked most of M. Night Shyamalan’s films, especially the underrated ‘Signs’, and the trailer for this, his latest effort, looked as though it’d be a Hammer-esque masterpiece. Unfortunately, it’s a total disaster. Shyamalan’s low-key, slow-building style is at odds with what should’ve been a wonderfully campy, gothic chiller, and the film only even comes close to coming alive in the final twenty minutes or so when Howard finally enters the damn woods. By then, it’s too late. Not only is Shyamalan’s style all wrong for this, but he seems to have lost his mojo anyway; there are far too many characters for any depth (Brendan Gleeson, usually a great scenery-chewer, essentially plays Third Elder from the Left, whilst Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver go too far in underplaying), the 19th century dialogue comes across as though it were based on really bad period movies, and the ending, when it finally comes, is neither surprising nor acceptable, it is a horrible, entirely predictable cop-out.
Shyamalan’s films are usually all smoke and mirrors, but this one really is just all surface, there’s absolutely nothing behind it all, and thus even the wonderful cinematography leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth because we know it’s just there for show (And since it is all just surface, and there really is very little plot to speak of, it becomes even easier to predict the ending because there’s nothing else to focus on!). And the less said about Oscar-winner (it really is a great cast, on paper…well, aside from the histrionic Judy Greer who is truly abysmal here) Adrien Brody’s offensive village idiot stereotype (more offensive as the film goes on) the better.
OVERALL SUMMARY
A total misfire, it’s as though Shyamalan completely lost his mind for the first hour or so of the film, regained it for about 20 minutes and lost it again right at the very end. Overpopulated, undernourished, boringly acted, and it’d be laughable if it weren’t so damn ponderous. Awful.
