Big Idea

• Here’s another Shyamalan film with an outlandish theme
• I call this movie strange, fresh and innovative
• Viewers are hooked throughout the entire flick
• This movie is rated PG-13.
• Read more...

Imagine living your whole life in a day

We love M. Night Shyamalan, even if we never did figure out how to say his name. He deals in films with outlandish themes, which nevertheless are as exquisitely made as a Faberge egg. Usually. Sometimes he makes a film that people just do not embrace. “Old” gets right out there on the edge of the outlandish with a story about a family that goes to the beach only to begin growing old at a fantastically accelerated rate. Wow, that's weird.

He usually writes his movies and he carries out that tradition with “Old.”

In the past he has used famous actors. Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Joaquin Phoenix and James McAvoy have appeared in two or more of his films. But this time he goes with a fresh young cast backed by stalwart English actor Rufus Sewell and well tried Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

I call this movie strange, fresh, and innovative. “Old” is every bit of each of those adjectives. Best of all, it entertains us. We watch people live their whole lives in a day. Think for a minute what that kind of compression does to relationships between parents and children, between husbands and wives and even between six year old kids that become teen agers in a couple of hours. We as watchers get a lot to think about while we try to disentangle the story.

Shyamalan gets us hooked on the narrative right away and stay hooked right through until the very end. This is really very good film making, the writing, acting and direction all included. A few times I just stopped and said to myself “That was a brilliant bit of film-making.”

Some things don't quite seem right to us, a couple of big plot themes (and no, I will not tell you which. No spoilers from me). But M. Night Shyamalan as the writer brings them all together by the time the credits go up.

Shyamalan made “Old” with a small by Hollywood standards $18 million dollar budget. I expect this one to turn a big profit. The film has a mild PG-13 rating but you should not bring smaller kids to see this. Some of the events will frighten or confuse smaller children. Please watch the ratings and believe them. 

M. Night Shaymalan makes weird films but people seem to like them. I did like “Old”. I think you will like this four sawblade film. 

Fun Fact-M. Night made his bones with his fabulous 1999 film “The Sixth Sense.” It grossed $673 million, a mark his other films have not as yet exceeded.