Old – Film Review

A family on a tropical holiday discovers 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.

M. Night Shyamalan is without question one of the most controversial and hotly debated filmmakers of all time. I feel as though he is one of those filmmakers where you either hate his work or you love it – there’s simply no middle ground. I honestly think that makes me love him even more than I already do because it just goes to show that when he makes a movie, he always puts his most wild ideas into them even if some audiences aren’t going to be too thrilled about it.

I’m definitely in the minority in saying that Glass, his conclusion to the long-running and beloved Eastrail 177 trilogy is a complete masterpiece and even better than Unbreakable. I will admit, however, that he seriously started to fall off the map in the early 2010s with movies such as After Earth, and of course, the absolutely abysmal The Last Airbender. Still to this day, I wonder how that movie got made. I’m not even the biggest fan of that series and yet it still pained me to have to watch it. It was worse knowing that the series has millions of die-hard fans that had to sit down and actually watch that movie.

But Shyamalan is a director that I respect immensely. Even the movies of his I don’t like, I respect the man for at least trying and giving it his all. For me, Shyamalan really started to have a comeback when he released Split back in 2016, a relentlessly tense psychological thriller featuring two phenomenal performances from James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy respectively.

Fast-forward to now and he is back with a brand new original thriller Old – an unsettling and deeply intriguing movie even if it is his weakest movie since After Earth. Let’s just get this out of the way right now – Old has an amazing concept. The idea of a family going to this beautiful beach only to learn that somehow the beach is making them age rapidly is genius and the potential that story could have is limitless.

Sadly Shyamalan doesn’t utilize its full potential but he still manages to toy around with some great ideas and there are plenty of times when Old can feel seriously uncomfortable and heady. Most of the time, you’ll be watching a scene that by all means is fairly normal except for one or two things that just feel… off. In a good way.

There are some sequences that had me cringing but not because they were bad but because they were genuinely eerie. I will say though, the first thirty minutes or so of Old are an absolute chore to sit through. Nothing of interest happens for a long time and I remember sitting down thinking “Is this ever going to get going?”. Thankfully it did after a while, but the initial setup was painfully slow and uneventful.

Once things get going, they mostly don’t stop even if some of the scenes that occur aren’t always as entertaining as others. Old is fueled by an all-star cast of highly talented actors but sadly, not all of them are good here. In fact, a large number of them I thought were seriously bad. Gael Garcia Bernal (Coco, Wasp Network) wasn’t too bad in the role of Guy, but his performance did feel lacking in some departments. Mainly in showing emotion.

Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, The Girl in the Spider’s Web), who I usually really like, is easily one of the worst actors in this project which was incredibly disheartening to see. She also fails to show a real sense of human emotion here as well. It’s not necessarily the actors’ faults here though – it’s the script and direction by Shyamalan.

This has been a problem with some of his movies in the past too, and I was hoping that trademark of his was long gone but it sadly resurfaces here. However, I will admit that Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit, Leave No Trace) and Alex Wolff (Hereditary, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) were both terrific in their respective roles. Not even Shyamalan’s faults could stop them from bringing the goods.

Ever since Split, Shyamalan has worked with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis on his films and I’m glad that he’s done that because together, the two make for an amazing lethal pairing. Gioulakis’ cinematography is almost always striking and impressive, and the same thing can be said about his work on Old.

There were some shots that he set up here that seriously took me by surprise and left me feeling seriously on edge in all the best ways. Sometimes the most disturbing shots aren’t the ones showcasing the beach itself, but occasionally it’ll just be a close-up of somebody’s face or a jarring camera pan that brilliantly creates a plausible sense of tension and unease.

Usually, Shyamalan’s films also boast terrific musical scores, but sadly, Trevor Gureckis‘ work on Old didn’t stand out to me. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not bad or anything but it also fails to rise up and stand tall amongst the other films Shyamalan has made that feature wonderful music.

If you have seen at least a handful of Shyamalan’s films, then you probably know that he loves to pull a twist ending on us almost all of the time, and the same thing can be said about Old. Of course, I’m not going to get into what this twist ending is or any of the details surrounding it, but I will say that it thankfully worked for me. Some of his twists are amazing, some are okay, and some are just downright awful. Old‘s twist is actually quite strong.

All in all, Old most definitely has its fair share of problems, and it’s not a game-changer or a career-best directorial effort from M. Night Shyamalan, but it still remains an intense and unsettling thriller executed just well enough to be worth checking out.

Overall Grade: B-

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity, and brief strong language

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abbey Lee, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff, Embeth Davidtz, Eliza Scanlen, Emun Elliott, Kathleen Chalfant, Thomasin McKenzie

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Written by: M. Night Shyamalan

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Release Date: July 23, 2021

Running Time: 108 minutes