M Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense

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M Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense

For M Night Shyamalan's breakthrough, The Sixth Sense (1999), the

twist ending worked well, adding another level to an already decent

film. Repeated to good effect in Unbreakable (2000), the surprise

ending became the director's signature. But with Signs (2002) it was

losing its novelty, or more accurately, it was becoming problematic as

there's no way Shyamalan could keep delivering entirely effective

twists. Signs had its moments, but the end result was a pompous and

ludicrously illogical film. And the twist ploy felt forced.

With The Village, Shyamalan continues to paint himself into a corner.

People expect the twist, but unfortunately the filmmaker seems to have

become a slave to it. The Village is a film based more on a pitch than

on a fully realised idea and solid storytelling. It's the high concept

backfiring.

The fact that Shyamalan seems to be trapped and / or intent upon

remaining 'the guy who does twist endings' is an exasperating

situation - as in many ways he's a skilled filmmaker, adept with

atmosphere and visuals, and able to elicit worthwhile performances

from actors. Perhaps he should relinquish some control next time round

and allow someone else to write a decent script.

The premise here concerns an isolated rural community who live a

simple, Amish-style life of farming and horticulture. The idyll is

compromised, however, by the fact that the villagers can't venture

into the surrounding woods because of "those we don't speak of".

Furthermore, the village elders - Hurt's Ed...

... middle of paper ...

...n uttering "She is moved by love. The world is moved

by love. It kneels before it in awe." Ron Howard's daughter - the top

billed, largely unknown Bryce Dallas Howard - also gives an

interesting performance as the eccentric Ivy. Oh, and those wondering

about Shyamalan's egotistical insistence on a cameo, well, that's

probably covered by the distributor's gagging order, which more

importantly stops us from fully appraising the film's themes here, as

mention of them would give away that all-important ending.

Verdict

Not as clever as it thinks it is, its classy feel compromised by

smugness, this is Shyamalan getting predictable. It's an insult to the

intelligence that the director and his purse-string holding cohorts

think the much-vaunted twists are enough, when a film is so lacking in

genuine narrative smarts.

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