Old (2021)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, July 22

PG-13 Running Time: 108 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • M. Night Shyamalan has a built-in audience who cannot wait to see what the writer/director, and lover of “THE TWIST!” comes up with for his next sci-fi/horror hybrid.

  • Shyamalan has assembled a stellar cast.

  • Adapted from graphic novel “Sandcastle,” Old has a great and enticing premise of an island where people age, with no explanation, at a rapidly increasing rate.

NO

  • Those who have read “Sandcastle” - really gonna wanna hear your thoughts on what you think Shyamalan has done with the source material.

  • The film looks strange, the characters spout stilted, awkward dialogue and the science within the fiction doesn’t make much sense. Logically, aesthetically, and in virtually every way, Old is just a baffling, headscratcher of a film.

  • YOU DON’T NEED A TWIST IN EVERY SINGLE MOVIE.


OUR REVIEW

The rollercoaster of rising highs and cascading lows is back on the rapid, steep downturn once again for writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. The resurgence he has experienced the last few years, with movies like Split and The Visit, and as executive producer of the Apple TV+ series “Servant,” crashes and burns spectacularly with his latest film, Old. Nonsensical, silly, and slightly bonkers, this thing is a trainwreck the very moment a number of couples and families set foot on a secretive, secluded island.

Guy and Prisca (Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps) are on a much-needed destination vacay with their 11-year-old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and 6-year-old son Trent (Noah River). There is latent tension in the air, but the family is trying to make the best of things. Once arriving at a luxurious island getaway (booked by Prisca), they are instantly greeted with special drinks and an overeager resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten). 

Trent makes friends right away with a young boy, Idlib (Kailen Jude), who loves ciphers and cryptography. Trent loves solving them (imagine that luck!) and a unique bond is created between the boys. Wonder if that has any meaning…

Let’s move on.

Once the manager invites them to the resort’s “exclusive” beach, things seem relaxing. As Guy and Prisca and kids arrive on the beach, we also meet Charles, a surgeon (Rufus Sewell), his young trophy wife Chrystal (Abbey Lee), their 6-year-old daughter Kara (Kyle Bailey) and Charles’ mother (Kathleen Chalfant). An additional husband and wife, Jarin (Ken Leung) and Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird), arrive and are pretty chummy. And we even have a famous rapper, with the inexplicable name of Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), distressed and unable to stop a nosebleed.

Luxury SUV - sorry, I mean Mid-Sized Sedan - is the first indication something is wrong. A girl he planned to hook up with washes up on the beach and people suspect his involvement. Charles begins behaving quite erratically. Prisca notices that Trent’s bathing suit isn’t quite fitting him anymore. Within a blink of an eye, Trent and Kara are now 11, and Maddox is 16. Another individual is having cardiac arrest and Sport Utility Vehicle keeps bleeding from both nostrils.

What. Is. Happening? 

Not only is this a fair question to ask when it comes to Shyamalan’s screenplay, but also the film as a whole. Once everyone arrives at the beach, chaos reigns. As Prisca and Guy try to wrap their heads around their kids being teenagers, tragedies continue. A battle of wills and control ensues. The-now 16 year old Trent and 16-year-old Kara cuddle in a tent. Charles is asking Marlon Brando trivia questions.

Problem is, none of this is even remotely compelling. Shyamalan may have a fascinating premise (he often does), but his execution is lacking, and Old is full of odd decisions. Namely, the cinematography by the normally terrific Mike Gioulakis (It Follows, Us) is jarring, with goofy angles and weird uses of focus. Until it matters to the story, these decisions completely remove viewers from tension and suspense. Giuolakis zooms in on random things, pivots his camera in the most distracting of ways. The presentation makes little sense. 

Worse yet is the dialogue. Adapted from “Sandcastle,” a graphic novel by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters, there are some unintentional laughs lurking within Shyamalan’s script that will make you howl. A great cast on paper simply cannot elevate the material they have been given. Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, and Eliza Scanlen step into the older roles of teenagers/young adults once the film elevates the age limits and keeps the film somewhat entertaining. They improve the proceedings some, but they are still stuck reciting the same forced lines and reacting to many of the wacky scenes Shyamalan has scripted for them.

You really can’t have an M. Night Shyamalan film without a “twist.” And unlike its largely twist-free graphic novel source material, Shyamalan tosses in his own “Gotcha!” - a rush of exposition and context so unbelievably ridiculous you have to just sit back and admire the audacity of it all.

Rated PG-13, you can see from an early glimpse of brief nudity and some incredibly violent scenes and images, Shyamalan may have wanted to push things further and be more edgy with his material. This would not have mattered. Old is shot so poorly, the acting so rudderless, that the inane writing only enhances the film’s bizarre choices and egregious missteps. Avoid this island adventure at all costs.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, Emun Elliott, Alexa Swinton, Gustaf Hammarsten, Kathleen Chalfant, Francesca Eastwood, Nolan River, Luca Faustino Rodriguez, Mikaya Fisher, Kailen Jude, M Night Shyamalan

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Based on the graphic novel “Sandcastle” by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederick Peeters
Release Date: July 23, 2021
Universal Pictures