OLD REVIEW

 *MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most interesting filmmakers working today and has created a wide range of films that varied in quality. Although he’s written and directed twisted thrillers such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Shyamalan is best known for his bad films, including the unintentionally funny The Happening, the disappointing After Earth and his abysmal live action adaptation of the animated series, The Last Airbender. There’s always interest surrounding a new film made by Shyamalan as it could either be good or bad. Since its release, Shyamalan’s latest film, Old, has received a mixed response, with critics describing his direction as uneven, however, there are those who enjoyed it. Its divided reception increased my interest in watching it. 

Old focuses on a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Inspired by the graphic novel, Sandcastle, which was written by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, Old has an interesting premise, unfortunate, the execution through Shyaman’s directing leads to a film filled with over the top performances and a story that is more confusing than clever. The plot twists are strange and disturbing as children age rapidly. Despite these flaws, however, I still found Old to be a fascinating and fun watch. 

The irony of Old is that, despite focusing on a group of characters who age quickly, it does have pacing issues. The first twenty to thirty minutes are spent introducing the characters including Guy (Gael García Bernal), his wife, Prisca (Vicky Krieps) and their young children, Trent (Nolan River) and Maddox (Alexa Swinton). Guy and Prisca are clearly having marriage issues and want to have one final holiday with their children before they divorce. The opening scene is where Old is at its weakest as the set up feels perfunctory and introduces other characters, including surgeon Charles (Rufus Sewell), his wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and their young daughter, Kara (Kyle Bailey). When they all arrive at the beach, the story becomes more interesting when Trent finds a corpse of a woman who had visited the beach the previous night. Following this gruesome discovery, the visitors soon learn that the beach is far from the paradise that they were initially promised and are trapped there.

The majority of Old takes place on the mysterious beach and this is where it’s at its most compelling. Each of the characters is affected in different yet no less disturbing ways, with Trent, Maddox and Kara ageing at an alarming rate. Both Guy and Prisca are shocked to discover that their children have grown into teenagers within hours. Guy also finds his vision deteriorating with Prisca’s tumour growing in her abdomen leading to a gruesome scene that sees Charles removing it. Shortly after ageing into a teenager, Kara finds herself pregnant before giving birth to a baby moments later. These disturbing outcomes are where Old is at its most twisted, however, Shyamalan’s flawed filmmaking skills prevent it from leaving much of an impression. 

A common trademark that features in most of Shyamalan’s films is a plot twist that occurs towards the end of the film. However, most of these twists are absurd and that’s the case with Old. For most of the film, I was wondering if the characters were going to get off the beach and, if they were, how? The final thirty minutes answered that question, however, it left me with more questions than I had at the beginning and found the twist to be more puzzling than clever.

What’s most interesting about Old isn’t anything to do with the film itself bur rather the fact that it was filmed during a pandemic. The worldwide outbreak of coronavirus in the last year has deeply impacted the filmmaking industry significantly, with films having their release dates postponed and other productions being stopped altogether. However, principle photography for Old began towards the end of 2020. Shyamalan said Old’s subject matter, in which a group of people find themselves trapped on an isolated beach, dealing with a deadly phenomenon, mirrored the experience of being in lockdown and the uncertainty of the pandemic. 

Following my watch of Old, I can understand why it’s received such a divisive response, with those having a lot of fun watching the twists unfold on the beach with others failing to be impressed with what Shyamalan had created. My feelings towards Old are mixed. Although I didn’t think it was as bad as I was expecting, it wasn’t as great as it could have been. I think that if it had been made by a more skilful director, Old could have been a riveting and twisted thriller, however, it’s held back by Shyamalan’s uneven directing and the melodramatic performances by its cast.

6/10