This new M. Night Shyamalan film is beautiful, thought-provoking and haunting, but fails on both the writing front and to live up to the highs of Shyamalan’s earlier career.
'Old' starts with a family – mum, dad, young daughter, younger son – en route to a fancy hotel for a holiday. All is not well, the parents are unhappy and bickering, the children comfort each other in the background. A kindly hotel manager suggests a special trip to a secret beach, which turns out to be not so secret when other people clamber aboard the beach-bound bus. As the film advertising makes clear, once they hit the sand, they begin to age rapidly with no evident escape.
Shot in sepia tones and recalling European indie films (the use of an international cast helps with this) Shyamalan’s new film is visually gorgeous and a departure from the feel of his previous, very American-style work. But the writing really lets it down. The dialogue is hammy and totally unbelievable. No emotional connection is developed with the characters, and the racism and shocking events that unfold are skimmed over, rather than explored in any depth or allowing the audience time to absorb and think on.
There are some big themes raised in the film however, such as, what is really important in life, love, family, the morality of large corporations. . . But one of these themes doesn’t fit with the others. The ending, while a twist, somewhat diluted or distracted from the heart of the film. Shyamalan provided an ending that extended the source material, the graphic novel 'Sandcastle' by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, which tied a story in a neat bow, when leaving the audiences guessing may have been better.
While the film has its faults, head along to see it as it will leave you thinking. Take some friends, talk about it over some comfort food to make you feel better as you ponder life’s all-too-rapid ending.
’Old' is in cinemas now.
