OLD
M. Night Shyamalan delivers a relatively expected, but still enjoyable thriller in OLD.
Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps), along with their two small children Trent (variously Nolan River, Alex Wolff and Emun Elliot) and Maddox (variously Alexa Swinton, Thomasin McKenzie and Embeth Davidtz), go to a remote island for a vacation. There, Guy and Prisca have to put aside their own personal issues to try and have a fun, final family vacation before a separation. They are encouraged by the hotel owner to journey to a private beach along with another family. There, they come across Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), a rapper sat on the beach, and are joined by another couple. Before long though, the calm and serene fun of the beach is interrupted by a dead body. Panicked and bereft, the group try to leave the beach, only to discover that not only can they not leave, but they are aging rapidly while they stay.
A director famed for his twists and turns, with the most famous of them becoming part of the global consciousness and vernacular, it is perhaps surprising that OLD doesn’t so much seek to surprise as it does intend to play out an intriguing concept.
OLD isn’t really thrilling or horrorful - there’s little in the way of things that make you wince, and pretty much no jump scares. For Shyamalan fans, the divisive directors patented last minute twists aren’t really evident here. But the plot plays out in a way that leaves you engaged and interested throughout. One spends the film wondering how the collected group will get out of their predicament, and how it will affect them as time goes on, more so than wondering what is going on.
The cast is uniformly impressive, with Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell and Alex Wolff all having impressive opportunities to shine.
The issues with OLD are really with the script. The bones and structure are all good; what it comes down to is how the story is told. While Shyamalan excels visually, delivering a series of really interesting motifs, his dialogue is at best tired and at worst shoddy. The opening scene bodes ill with non-stop clunky foreshadowing, and it barely gets better from there. For anyone with a particular penchant for exposition, this one will go down a treat, but for the discerning moviegoer who prefers to be shown not told, this will be a jarring experience.
In the end, OLD is the sort of film where you put aside some of the weaknesses and wind up enjoying yourself pretty easily.
