There´s something wrong with the world

SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!

"The Village" isn't a real horror movie, but a slow paced science fiction drama. The plot is set in a peaceful, Amish-like village in 1897. The village is ruled by a group of benign Elders (both male and female), and everyone lives a simple, happy, rustic lifestyle.

As the story progresses, it becomes more and more obvious that something isn't what it should be. The Elders have dark secrets, and bizarre creatures in red caps occasionally attack the village and its inhabitants. Nobody is allowed to leave the premises. Indeed, almost nobody wants to leave, fearing the supernatural creatures in the woods.

The leading Elder, Edward Walker, eventually reveals to his daughter, the blind Ivy, that the entire community is based on a lie: the monsters scaring the inhabitants to remain in the village are the Elders in disguise! The final plot twist reveals that the film is actually set in the present day (2004) and that the village is a kind of cult which has deliberately cut itself off from civilization. The "dangerous" woods are part of a wildlife preserve, owned by Walker himself. The movie ends with Ivy returning to the village after visiting the outside world. Since Ivy is blind, it's unclear how much she has understood of the situation, and she opts to keep the secrets her father has already revealed to her. The strange community is allowed to continue.

I'm somewhat ambivalent towards "The Village". The movie does get too tedious at times, the twist ending would be part-incomprehensible without the Wikipedia exegesis, and the plot is illogical even for a science fiction production (I only told you the good parts!).

Yet, "The Village" has *something* that makes it tolerable, even good (after a fashion). I'm not sure what, though. Perhaps it's Ivy, perhaps it's the fact that the Elders are tragic rather than evil, or perhaps it actually is the twist ending. I mean, the idea isn't bad! I always get fascinated by science fiction movies on the "fake world" theme, such as "The Matrix" or "The Island". Perhaps I subconsciously suspect that our world *is* a big fake, and that somebody somewhere is hiding something?

I really don't know how to rate "The Village". Both two, three and four stars are options. When the film is at its most tedious and illogical, it definitely goes down to a two. The twist ending itself is worth four. As a compromise, I give it three stars. And yes, "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" were better...