Getting "Old"

Moderate spoilers ahead.

After the exasperating experience I had watching "Glass," I was a little wary of M. Night Shyamalan's latest.  I admit that I knew almost everything that was going to happen in the film before I watched it, because I've read the French/Swiss graphic novel it was based on, "Sandcastles."  And because I liked "Sandcastles" so much, and was curious as to how the material would translate to the screen, I decided to give "Old" a shot.  I'm glad I did.  

"Old" is the weirdest, wildest, movie I've seen this year, something that probably only M. Night Shyamalan could have gotten made with this level of talent and budget.  If you've seen any of the press, you know the film is about a group of people trapped on a beach where everyone finds themselves aging at a rapid pace.  Children become teenagers in a few hours, and then adults.  Adults grow old and succumb to the inevitable.  Diseases that should take years to progress quickly become unmanageable.  Most of the action centers around the Kappa family - father Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal), mother Prisca (Vicky Krieps), and six year-old Trent (Nolan Rivers) and eleven year-old Maddox (Alexa Swinton).  Trent and Maddox are also played by a succession of other actors, including Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie.  Others on the beach include a paranoid surgeon, Charles (Rufus Sewell), his wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and daughter Kara (Eliza Scanlen), a psychologist Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird), a nurse Jarin (Ken Leung), and a rapper, Brendan (Aaron Pierre).  

Like "Glass," "Old" has some of the most eye-rolling, on-the-nose, unsubtle, unrealistic dialogue I have ever heard.  The paper-thin characters are constantly spouting introductions and exposition, the plotting is often clumsy, and dialogue is awfully stilted.  One of the kids literally goes around asking for the names and occupations of every adult he meets.  However, the film is so allegorical, and is constantly barrelling through insane, high concept situations at such a fast pace, the broad behavior of the characters and the artificiality of their speech often work to the film's advantage.  There's an oddly straightforward, "Twilight Zone" quality to the supernatural setups and payoffs that is fascinating, and the tone is often juggling horror, tragedy, and humor all at the same time in a way that is sometimes maddening, but also very entertaining.  Whatever else you want to say about "Old," it is never boring.         

I feel that I should point out that there's very little gore in the film, though there's heaps of body horror.  Shyamalan is very good about suggesting more than he ever actually shows.  One of his devices I particularly enjoy is how he'll occasionally have a series of events play out over the course of one shot.  The camera travels up the beach following one character during a tense moment, and by the time it returns to the starting point, the situation has completely changed due to how fast the characters are aging.  We often see the reactions to what's happening a few seconds before the actual reveal, and only glimpses of the really wild stuff, letting the audience's mind fill in the horror.  Though the film looks expensive, with its tropical locale and constantly changing status quo, it's the filmmaking, rather than the effects, that do the heavy lifting.   

It helps that the cast is all-around fantastic, threading the needle between too outrageous and not outrageous enough in light of the impossible circumstances.  The younger actors like McKenzie and Wolff are especially good, playing young children in older bodies who have to step up more and more as the adults start losing control.  There are some truly touching moments between Krieps and Garcia-Bernal, and Sewell manages to save some of the really ridiculous developments just by managing to somehow keep a straight face. 

I really don't know if "Old"is a good movie or not - I'm leaning toward not - but I enjoyed it.  I thought it was daring and weird and tried things that nobody else in their right mind would put on screen.  And even if it was nuts, I had a lot of fun.  I even like the totally unnecessary ending that offers a totally unnecessary explanation - not a twist - but an explanation.  Shyamalan seems to have found a new groove, and I'm happy for him.  

But dear god, this man needs a co-writer in the worst way. 

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