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Review: "Old"

M. Knight Shyamalan returns to the big screen with another thriller, but it lacks thrills.

By Nick CavuotiPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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M. Knight Shyamalan can be rather hit or miss with his films ever since he hit gold way back in 1999 with The Sixth Sense. He has had some great success since then, dispersed with complete, almost career ruining films. Truly, he is a divisive filmmaker, people either love his work or hate it. I suspect that will again be the case with his new film, Old. Here Shyamalan chooses to adapt the 2010 graphic novel, Sandcastle and largely he takes some massive liberties and the only similarity between the two is that people age rapidly on a beautiful beach. Old is a very serious film with it's premise, and in it's attempt to be so it is rather unintentionally funny at times. For his usual film, it is very predictable which is very unlike Shyamalan.

The plot follows the Cappa family as they arrive at a tropical resort hoping to make some happy memories in spite of the father Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) heading toward an inevitable breakup. Eventually at the hotel, they are told of a beautiful isolated beach and upon arrival they are met with disaster as a dead body is found. Shortly after that as tensions begin to rise, the Cappa children are no longer children but in fact teenagers. The vacationers on this special beach surmise that time for some reason is accelerated, thirty minutes is approximately that of a full year and any time they try to leave they collapse.

The overall premise is an interesting one and of course it brings forth thoughts of how quickly time can go and how trivial the small things become. However the execution and some of the thrills are played with such a serious tone it is hard to not laugh at some of them. Not to mention that the logic of certain scenes is simply baffling and really takes the audience out of a scene. M. Knight Shyamalan's message of time passes so fast, and to enjoy the little things is ham-fisted that it just becomes annoying over a period of time, no pun intended there, maybe. Beyond the message and directing, Shyamalan's biggest fault in this film is that of the written page. Looking past the flow and plot, the dialogue is absolutely atrocious. It makes it incredibly hard to care for any characters, nor even interested in the scenes at times.

It is a shame that the film wasted such an enticing premise, and by no means is it Shyamalan's worst film, but it is up there. His big twist ending is also rather lame, while detracting from the overall plot of the film and a bit pretentious in an attempt to say something meaningful about the state of the world. It is difficult to leave the theater after seeing the film and think back to any stand out scenes, or scares, more so you found yourself grossed out by it and wondering how a brilliant premise could end with such a botched film.

The actors themselves do their best to sell the paper thin script and dialogue but only they can do so much with so little. One standout, if you can even call it that would be that of Rufus Sewell as an accomplished doctor who suffers from mental health issues, and watch him deteriorate as time passes faster then normal on the island is intriguing, but albeit poorly done once again on the page and in execution. I have a hard time faulting the actors on missteps as a lot of the criticism should solely fall on the shoulders of M. Knight Shyamalan in this film.

1.5 stars out of 5

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About the Creator

Nick Cavuoti

An avid movie watcher, and I have been writing short stories and novels on the side for years now. Hoping to hone my craft here on Vocal!

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