William Hurt did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Edward Walker in The Village.
William Hurt plays the elder of the village, a performer who may have had the best armor to deal with the sometimes ropey dialogue of M. Night Shyamalan, because Hurt himself sometimes has a very peculiar way of delivering lines. And for me, unless he’s lost in space, this works regardless even if most actors you might call it stilted, for Hurt it works and for Hurt I was convinced every word he says in this film which is an achievement in itself, particularly when also very talented actors like Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver I found fumbled a bit when trying to get every word across. Hurt handles it with ease. Hurt is effective in doing his best to essentially earn the twist in playing the man who is part of the village, bringing the general needed gravitas as the elder so to speak. What Hurt does so well is play very much with the twist in mind throughout the film and more than anyone earns in his performance. As there is the sense of the weight of the lie in everything that he does, even as he tries to keep this general calm of the man projecting concern and strength for his community.
Within the moments where the young village stalwart Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix) decides that he should try to leave the village for better medicines, Hurt’s reactions within this area with a combination of concern and admiration. The former even not for the man’s life but rather something else that is nagging at him. When even Lucius attempts to make the trip unauthorized, Edward doesn’t react with anger rather appreciation for the bravery of the young man. Hurt’s reaction in the moment portrays honest affection for the spirit of the young man and really even a sense of hope for the future. The main crux of the story comes as Lucius is severely injured by the mentally unwell Noah (Adrien Brody), leaving Edward’s blind daughter Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) to want to save him. Coming to the revelations of the piece, though again I’ll credit Hurt for very much wanting to do the work to try to provide a bit of depth within the context of the twist. Including when Edward tells Ivy of his own father, a financial wizard who was murdered for his wealth. Hurt brings within the delivery of this speech frankly a sense of modernity, a hint of nostalgia for his dad, but also a very strong sense of motivation for the man’s rejection for the rest of the world. Leading to the twist which felt unavoidable at the time of the film’s release, as Edward shows her that the strange creatures lurking in the woods are in fact costumes the elders wear to keep their children to stay within the village. Hurt even within this revelation even excels in his almost half embarrassed/half calming declaration that it is “farce” as he supports his daughter breaking the rules and leaving the forest.
Leading to what really is Hurt’s standout scene where the rest of the elders come to learn of the choice and some of them severely question the break of their oaths. Hurt is terrific in the scene because what he calls upon is this old passion in his performance as he speaks not only of the crimes of Noah, but the hope of his daughter and Lucius. Bringing within it not just a sense of love and concern for the future, but also the sense of conviction of someone who is reckoning essentially against the strictures of his old choice and instead supporting the fundamental spirit of why he made that original choice. It’s a strong scene for Hurt, one that naturally reveals this history professor who made the decision to go with others to hide essentially in the forest away from society to make some idealized version of society to avoid those ills, now dealing with the ills regardless. Hurt makes the pain of dealing with these realizations feel absolutely real and creates something tangible in the emotional strain he brings in every word noting the man's true passion to hold onto the idea of innocence behind the village meanwhile allowing the fundamental rules of the village to be broken. It’s there and it is only a shame that this is basically the end of the notion and not something the film deals with beyond a certain point. Which is unfortunate as the film might’ve had something if it continued in the direction alluded to by this scene, but basically the film is wrapping up so that’s that. Regardless, Hurt delivers on alluding to that potential, in creating a performance that not only naturally supports the twist also weaves within it some genuine emotion. I will say it is unfortunate the film isn't better because what Hurt does is create a greater promise within the premise, which sadly the premise as is only allows Hurt to go so far.
9 comments:
Louis: Ratings and thoughts on the cast.
Haven't seen this film in 20 years and I only vaguely remember Brody.
Louis: Your thoughts on this film's cinematography and score?
Not a fan of The Village at all, but at least Hurt did as well with this part as he could here.
Louis: What would you say were the most overlooked acting "streaks" of individual actors based on them consistently delivering great performances during each decade from 1950s to 2010s?
Also, your cast for a 1990s version of Wake Up Dead Man with Anthony Hopkins as Benoit Blanc and Rob Reiner as the director?
Ytrewq: Damn, it slipped my mind to ask him for that cast, since I already had done the same for Glass Onion lol.
Luke:
Howard - 4(She is quite effective I think in not trying to play the part as too angelic rather creating a believable state of the character beyond that. She creates a real sense of vulnerability combined with need in her scenes with Phoenix where she doesn’t play towards a pure innocence but rather someone who does have her own desires beyond sort of a generalized goodness. This carries her then into the scenes of essentially taking on the mantle of the hero later on where she manages to play against the troubling emotions effectively combined with that strong sense of conviction to save the man she loves and find help. Howard surprisingly goes against really I would say the more constrained nature of her later performances, to find some needed naturalism within the challenging environment of Shyamalan’s often less than natural style.)
Phoenix - 2.5(Found him pretty bland here. It certainly doesn’t help that his role basically boils down to “good guy”, but even as such I didn’t find Phoenix brought any flavor essentially to his character. He’s just kind of there, which is a very rare state for a Phoenix performance.)
Weaver - 2.5(Contrasting my praise for Hurt pulling off the dialogue and the twist. Weaver on the other hand found pretty stilted when trying to deliver the specific of the dialogue and really didn't get a proper sense of a “secret” within her performance. She’s a bit straightforward here and not in a particularly compelling fashion.)
Brody - 2(I will say he certainly goes for it but that might be part of the problem. As the character of Noah as written feels far more of a plot device where we get a lot of behavior but not much more than that. Leaving Brody seemingly wanting to fill as much as he can with all sorts of behaviors that feels like a whole lot of acting but not acting that works in any actual way. Rather it becomes just a series of mannerisms where each might be more outlandish than the last and most importantly he’s just not particularly convincing. I will say again, the writing really sabotages things since he’s there just to be those extremes but regardless what Brody is doing doesn’t work. Although I will say this type of performance is one of the hardest to pull off well even when the writing is considerably better than it is here.)
Gleeson - 3.5(Actually do like everything he does where you get in every reaction the sense of the weight of his loss in the opening scene and bringing this grief within it where you do sense more is nagging within his mind than just lost. There is the sense of an idea that they might’ve done something. It’s good work even though he’s not the focus.)
Everyone else I think is fine though don’t really stand out, including a Where’s Waldo appearance from Jesse Eisenberg.
Anonymous:
Deakins’s cinematography I think manages to excel in creating a compelling image within two of Shyamalan’s common choices, one being a drabber color palette though with purpose here. Deakins thought kind of finding the beauty in beige and in making the vibrant colors that do exist stand out all the more…something that seems slightly unexploited by the director however. Furthermore some of Shyamalan’s more stylistic shots here are made particularly naturally within Deakins’s work and you see kind of the up in performance from having such a master working with him.
The score is wonderful work from James Newton Howard as it manages to combine different qualities within one specific tapestry. As the use of strings does and sparse instrumentation is able to have an isolating often somber quality. Yet within certain shifts he can go towards overtly melodic within those designs that are beautiful and feel very much like a precursor to his main theme from A Hidden Life. Conversely though he can twist those sounds a different way to create an atonal eerie quality. In each shift naturally creating the different moods of the piece most captivatingly.
Ytrewq:
Apologizes if I reuse anyone from my retro casts for the previous two films as I couldn’t find them for reference.
Father Jud: Michael J. Fox
Martha: Maureen O’Hara
Wicks: Bruce Dern
Geraldine Scott: Amy Madigan
Nat Sharp: Chris Sarandon
Vera Drake: Leslie Uggams
Cy Draven: Adrian Lester
Lee Ross: Christopher Guest
Simone: Robin Wright
Samson: Robert Loggia
Louise: Margot Martindale
Clarification on the first question: do you mean just streaks in any of those decades, or just someone who gave great performances in multiple decades?
Louis: I regret to inform you that Chris Sarandon was already cast as Walt for the first one. It's in the Alternate Best Supporting 1999 lineup page. Everyone else is good to go though.
Also, speaking of the series, Carrie Coon as an alternate choice for Mila Kunis in the third one?
Louis: Streaks in any of these decades.
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