(rated R)
“It takes a village” to be this obsessed and to instill such fear into its young, as does this 19th century isolated town run by “the elders” (William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver). Director M.Night Shyamlan, (“Signs” and “Sixth Sense”) again works his mythical magic while subtlety dropping the color red — “the bad color” in a frightening tale of naïve ignorance that feels part “Blair Witch Project” and part “Wuthering Heights”. During an unexpected jealous rage, Adrian Brody does an outstanding job of being the village idiot, who sets the trauma into motion. Joaquin Phoenix plays the farm-hand stud, while Judy Greer and newcomer Bryce Howard play the love interest sisters. Howard is director Ron Howard’s daughter and this is her screen debut as well as scene after scene stealer, portraying a young blind girl with killer instinct, motivation and passion, putting Helen Keller to shame. There’s not much that can be said about the plot without revealing its secret. And while its deadly slow pace and boring personalities match the witless, ox-driven style of anybody circa 1800s, it’s the twisted ending that is this movie’s only salvation.
