Old

The latest mystery thriller from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan may not be to everyone’s taste, but the atmospheric direction and engaging storyline maintains the tension throughout.

Premise: While on a daytrip from their luxury tropical island resort, a group of holidaymakers find themselves trapped on a secluded beach where they all begin to start rapidly aging.

Review:

It’s nice to see that M. Night Shyamalan is back making the films that he wants to make, without the pressures of either living up to the hype of expectation (like his earlier post-The Sixth Sense films had to) or delivering a big-budget tent-pole movie (e.g. After Earth). And while Old may not be “prime” Shyamalan in the same way that Unbreakable and Split were, it’s infinitely better than his low points (like The Lady in the Water or the almost unwatchable The Happening).

There’s a sense with Old that Shyamalan has made this film simply because he’s intrigued by the premise, rather than being pushed by a studio into making something “more commercial”. Old is intentionally weird and unsettling, and some viewers could be put off either by its tone (which has a heightened, otherworldly quality to it), the acting (which is arguably also quite stylised, with the ensemble cast playing recognisable archetypes rather than fully rounded characters), or the very deliberate camera work (which repeatedly uses disorientating spin-pans and long tracking shots, which some viewers may find intrusive).

“…feels like the work of a singular filmmaker…”

The result is that while Old may not appeal to everyone, there’s no question that it has a clear visual and tonal identity of its own, and it feels like the work of a singular filmmaker rather than a “safe” studio picture. It’s also (mild spoiler alert) not a film that relies on a Big Twist TM for its impact, meaning that viewers don’t have to spend the entire film waiting to the other shoe to drop (which was certainly a problem with several of M. Night Shyamalan’s post-The Sixth Sense films).

The ensemble cast carry the film well – and even if it could be argued that they are all playing heightened archetypes rather than fully realised characters, the cast still find enough little moments to bring their characters to life and engage the audience’s interest. And as this is arguably a horror film (at least on some level), it’s perhaps more excusable to use a recognised shorthand to establish the characters quickly before the events start to escalate.

“…the missteps are forgivable because the storyline itself is so tense & engaging…”

This film should also be recognised for its diverse cast, and in particular, the casting of Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and Luxembourgish actress Vicky Krieps as the parents of the main family means that both of the film’s leads are non-American. The rest of the ensemble cast includes a mix of established character actors (like Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung and Nikki Amuka-Bird) and talented up-and-comers (including Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, Abbey Lee and Eliza Scanlen).

The story itself does require a certain suspension of disbelief, but (like Unbreakable), it does attempt to provide plausible pseudo-scientific explanations for what it going on. Perhaps more egregious are some of the lines of dialogue, which sometimes feel like inelegant exposition dumps, and other times, just make no sense at all (like one character referring to finding a business “on the internet” as if that was something unusual or special). There are also a handful of occasions where characters make Stupid Horror Movie Decisions TM for no reason other than to advance the plot or raise the stakes, but overall, most of these missteps are forgivable because the storyline itself is so tense and engaging.

“…a tense & gripping mystery thriller…”

The film arguably has a subtext about living in the moment, not wishing your life away, and the perspective that time and distance brings, but these are all very much secondary to the film’s primary aim, which is to deliver a tense and gripping mystery thriller. And despite having a number of minor quibbles generally, there’s no denying that Old engaged my attention throughout the movie, and I was invested in seeing how everything would be resolved.

In the end, the very deliberate approach to the cinematography, the awkward dialogue, and the stilted characters may simply be too much for some viewers, but if you are able to tune into the film’s Twilight Zone-style approach and heightened tone, there’s certainly enough to keep you gripped for the full 108-minute runtime.