‘Old’ Review: Interesting Premise Weighed Down by Baffling Script
Why does every M. Night Shyamalan movie feel like it’s on the edge of brilliance but just misses the mark? That was the case with Glass and many might say that’s the case with most of his movies. Old is his latest trippy thriller about a family that travels to a beach on a remote island that causes them to age at a rapid pace. I won’t give much away because I feel like this movie is best experienced with as little information as possible.
While the premise is pretty great (Shyamalan got the premise from a graphic novel titled Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters), Old is hard to review. On one hand, the movie is a ton of fun. Shyamalan really embraces the premise and has some truly shocking set pieces. On the other hand, the script which Shyamalan wrote, is so bad. Everything that happens in this movie is explained by the characters in the film. Things that we see happening clearly and don’t need any explanation still get explanations.
Also, some of the performances are not great. Gael García Bernal plays the father of the main family and he’s not great. He’s typically a very strong actor but his performance felt off. Vicky Krieps plays his wife and her struggles speaking English really hurt her performance. She gets a lot better towards the end of the film when she doesn’t have to speak much. Thomasin McKenzie appears to be the new IT girl in Hollywood after her breakout performance in Jojo Rabbit but her accent is wonky. The New Zealand native cannot pull off a convincing American accent. Her performance also wasn’t great.
The two standout performances were Rufus Sewell and Aaron Pierre. Sewell steals every scene that he’s in while Pierre is probably the most likable performer in the movie.
Shyamalan has formed a strong relationship with Mike Gioulakis, who is one of my favorite cinematographers working right now. However, there is some very strange cinematography in this movie that doesn’t really work and becomes distracting. That’s likely more of a Shyamalan thing than a Gioulakis thing.
There’s a lot to like about Old. The premise is great and there is some dumb fun. Unfortunately, Shyamalan gets carried away with the dialogue and the ending drags on for too long. I feel like there’s a brilliant movie here if it were in the hands of a different director but at the same time, there’s something so unique about the way Shyamalan approaches things and it makes for a fun viewing experience.
