Old
universalThere is not a single working director that with every new project creates the same sensation of intrigue and distant intrigue as M. Night Shyamalan. Considering the director has made just about every film under the sun – a widely appreciated masterpiece, outright disaster, indie gem, hidden masterpiece, blockbuster – it is always impossible to build proper expectations for his features, with every release feeling like it could be his best or worst to date with little rhyme or reason. Coming as his 14th feature film, Old returns Shyamalan to the sci-fi mystery genre as the film sees a group of individuals visiting a tropical resort get dropped off at a mysterious beach where suddenly they start to age at a greatly induced rate. While the concept sounds intriguing, Old sadly becomes one of the most confusing and shaky Shyamalan films to date, even if it doesn't come close to the bottom disasters of his filmography.
The most surprising thing within Old isn't any twist or turn, it is the filmmaking of the project. Often overlooked as a director and more praised as a writer, it is easy to forget that Shyamalan has shown to be a master of directing, specifically when it comes to evoking emotion. The Village, for example, not only features some of the best-directed sequences of any film but also is largely one of the best-directed features as a whole to come out in recent decades. This is to say that it should be a base level that the filmmaking within a Shyamalan project will be solid, but Old rejects this idea. The filmmaking within Old, but specifically when it comes to visual direction, is not only inconsistent but overall poor. The effects put onto the camera when it comes to frame rate often feel random and forced, with the cinematography by Mike Gioulakis being genuinely terrible. It makes no sense where this comes from, as Gioulakis himself has proven his talent with projects like Split and Us, but the fact remains true. What makes this all the more bizarre is that this only seems to hurt the film once it gets to the beach. The entire beginning portion of the film at the resort feels visually well-crafted and competent only for the film to then fall down a rabbit hole of confusion.
If one had to give an assessment of the filmmaking within Old while not having the context of who the film was made by, it feels reasonable that the conclusion reached would be that the director was some inexperienced indie horror director who was simply way too far in over his head. Even with his clearly lesser films like The Happening and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Shyamalan felt in control and competent enough at creating his vision even if the fundamental vision was quite terrible. Old doesn't feel this way and, because of this, might just go down as the overall worst made Shyamalan feature to date, even if the results are above that of those previously mentioned disasters. It also is worth pointing out that plenty of the visual effects within the film are quite bad, clearly suffering from its smaller budget. Characters will often look out of place against their backgrounds and the project feels half-baked when it comes to even the quality of visuals.
The one thing that seems plausible as far as an explanation for these faults is the concept of the actual movie. Adapting a comic called Sandcastle by Frederik Peeters, Shyamalan himself doesn't build the base layer of logic this world lives by. While it is clear he adds a ton to the original concept when comparing the two plots, it still feels as if Shyamalan is out of touch with the world he is trying to suck the audience into. This is felt not just within the directing but also the writing. Shyamalan has always been a controversial screenwriter with his blending of quirkiness, poetry and normal dialogue, but Old feels especially messy. From random spouts of out-of-place explaining when it comes to the dynamic of the world to the use of multiple deus ex machinas to propel various characters and scenes, again the only explanation seems to be Shyamalan struggling with this as an adaptation.
This is especially annoying, as there are small moments scattered throughout the feature when the characters are allowed to breathe and some genuinely beautiful moments appear. As the characters attempt to fight their way off of the beach before death comes for them in only a matter of hours, some characters feel inspired to embrace those around them and find whatever bits of closure they will need if they are not able to escape the beach. While it is clearly desired that these debates around what the group should do happen more often and are focused on with a greater depth, without getting into spoilers, these moments are ultimately the heart and soul of Old, and their emotions do hit regardless of the feature around them.
These character moments are not the only piece of the film that feel as if they deserve more attention and time dedicated to fleshing out the moral complexities of. While the ending will not be discussed in detail for obvious reasons, it also suffers a similar fate, with the film only briefly mentioning the actual depth that could be found in the ending rather than actually digging to expose its full potential. Maybe this is reactionary due to the rejection of a similar ending for his previous feature Glass, which saw many reject an attempt to find something deeper and instead wanted a more simple and digestible conclusion.
It is worth pointing out, however, that for every way that Old feels unique in Shyamalan's filmography, the film also carries the weird burden of forcibly buying into the established lore that Shyamalan films carry. From a cameo by the director himself to references to Philadelphia, Shyamalan fans will be caught off guard first by the moments of the distance between Old and most of his other filmography – only to then feel whiplash due to its efforts to bring it all back together. It is a strange patchwork of identities that simply don't mesh.
Both some of the best and some of the worst within the movie are found in its cast. Largely, Old feels like a complete misfire when it comes to casting. Almost every actor gives awkward and stale performances, with Vicky Krieps especially letting the film down since she is seen as the soul of the feature. While Krieps and Gael García Bernal do have some moments where their talents are revealed, the only majorly great performances that feel like overall successes come from Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie. The context of their performances already requires so much from these two, with the overarching style of the film and the individuals they get to play off of not helping in the slightest. Despite this, both really do shine and show a unique maturity found within immaturity that is hard to explain yet immediately stands out. Aaron Pierre also does show potential but with the absolutely bizarre context of which his character exists in the film, he ultimately is done very dirty by the picture.
Right when one feels like they have a grasp on what Shyamalan has to deliver, the director gives something as confusing as it is ultimately disappointing. There clearly are strong ideas within the film and moments where they do start to shine, but the film ends up failing the potential of these moments. Whether this is because of Shyamalan's struggles to adapt a concept not of his own, the difficult concept or the so far unmentioned x-factor of the film being made during the COVID-19 era will remain a mystery. What is clear, however, is that Old is nowhere near the project many were hoping it would be and will leave many audience members and long-time Shyamalan fans shaking their heads.
