Old - A Movie Review

Are you sure that we’ve only been sitting on this beach for an hour? I feel... old.

After a trip to the beach, Old was released to theaters in 2021. On their vacation, a family is taken to a secluded beach. Finding themselves rapidly aging, they need to escape before it’s too late.

I am still trying to wrap my head around this perplexing film. I also had no idea whether to take it seriously or not. The trailer of Old edited together a more suspenseful film than what we were given as the final product. Old missed a mark, failing to make a concise story.

The cast of Old credits the talents of Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sowell, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Alex Wolff, Thomasine McKenzie, Eliza Scanlon, and Aaron Pierre. Some took the film seriously while the other half had no idea what they were filming.

I will give credit to the actors for giving their best efforts with the script. They did a good job working off one another in the group scenes. Filming during the pandemic must not have been easy but they succeeded.

Part of me wishes that we could have focused on the main family. They were the only ones who had depth and a story. The rest of the characters were not given much of a purpose. One actor, in particular, felt like he was reading from cue cards.

Alex Wolff was the highlight. He was the only one to really connect to his character, studying aspects of the mentality of his young age. Wolff has come so far as an actor. Based on his performance here, I know that Wolff has an engrossing career as an actor ahead of him.

The dialogue is so cringe-worthy that it feels like it was written by a child. Most of the dialogue that’s written for the kids is unusual. What child knows what a mortgage is? It was also strange how they asked strangers what their occupations were.

Putting the weak characters and poorly written dialogue aside, I was impressed by the cinematography. The island was a stunning location. The camera direction was the only element of this film that was concentrated on. Because everything is so chaotic, the camera distorted the screen, focused on unusual images, and characters never aged in front of the audience’s eyes.

It’s too bad that M. Night Shyamalan didn’t focus more on the story and his direction to his actors. Old could have been a good film. I have no idea if Old was supposed to be a horror-comedy or not. I was laughing more.

I was unsure of whether to laugh or be scared - whichever the intentions were. The dialogue was just so corny. I was saying ‘what?’ to myself half the time. The script needed a better edit because there were a lot of elements about the island that didn’t make sense.

Old has its gory sequences. It’s not gory or offputting like how the trailer made it out to be. By the middle half, I was bored. It becomes repetitive in its storytelling unsure of where to take the story next.

Of course, Shyamalan incorporates his famous twist. It was not necessary and made no sense at all. It also ruined the mysterious atmosphere of the film. The film falls on ending fatigue showing scenes that were better left up to audience interpretation.

I warn you that Old is disturbing. I’m not sure if I would recommend it, but if you’re a fan of M. Night Shyamalan, go see it in theaters.