Slow-paced suspense

The Village, the fifth film by the Philadelphia area’s own M. Night Shyamalan, is perhaps the writer-director’s most gutsy. It takes its time to get to the climax and once it reaches it, it’s a doozy. But the trouble is in the journey.

This time around, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver lead a cast that includes Adrien Brody and Joaquin Phoenix as a group of villagers living in what appears to be the late 19th century.

These people have isolated themselves from the world, but not by choice. They are surrounded by woods and cannot travel to "the towns," as they call them, for fear of the horrible creatures lurking all around.

There is an unspoken agreement between the creatures and the villagers. The villagers agree to stay out of the woods and the creatures agree not to come into the village and slaughter everybody. When the quiet but fearless Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) announces his intentions to venture into the unknown world, his action threatens to forever change the village.

Shyamalan is arguably better than any living director at generating suspense. In each of his films, the director makes a notable, clever cameo, just like his idol, Alfred Hitchcock.

The Village contains wonderful moments of intensity and the payoff is substantial, though I must admit I saw it coming about 10 minutes into the movie.

The fairest way to judge a film is to ask, Did it achieve what it set out to do? Although the movie has its terrifying moments and wonderfully sublime ones, something is lacking. Despite the film’s success at conveying scenes of psychological horror, it is just too slow in the middle. This writer found himself looking at his watch more than once.

That said, a subpar M. Night Shyamalan movie is still better than many directors’ best work. The cast is better than first-rate. It’s a treat to watch Hurt in what is basically the lead role. Weaver is also excellent, as are Brody and Phoenix.

The Village is very intelligent and dares to be different. But ultimately, it falls short of its mark. Shyamalan should continue to make movies his way, but it wouldn’t hurt to pick up the pace just a little.

The Village
PG-13
Starting tomorrow at area theaters
Two-and-a-half reels out of four

Recommended Rental

13 Going On 30
PG-13
Available Tuesday

At her 13th birthday party, Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen) makes a wish to be all grown up and in her dream job as an editor for a tony Manhattan magazine. The next morning, Jenna (now played by Jennifer Garner) wakes up and finds that her dreams have come true. But instead of being elated, she is terrified and seeks out her onetime best friend Matt (Mark Ruffalo), who is still sore she dumped him to hang with the popular kids. Although not in the same league as Big, 13 Going On 30 has three major things going for it: Garner is just amazing as the teenybopper in a woman’s body, Ruffalo plays it totally straight and the movie never takes itself too seriously.