Old Movie Review

Old (2021)

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Written by: M. Night Shyamalan (written for the screen by), Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters (based on the graphic novel "Sandcastle" by)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Ken Leung
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A vacationing family discovers that the secluded beach where they're relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Verdict
This has a great concept that unfortunately only carries the movie so far. The plot loses steam two thirds in with a problem that doesn't have a solution or even a plan. The dialog, typical for a Shyamalan movie, is clunky. The story remains mostly static in the last third as it treads water before the big conclusion. As you might have guessed this has a bit of a twist ending which serves to explain why the people ended up on this specific beach.
It depends.

Review
It's near impossible to not know at least a little bit about what this movie is about. This has the potential to be such an emotional journey for the characters, but it's wasted. Any amount of character development is forced. These people don't act or speak like normal humans. This could have used some candid moments between characters to punctuate and pace the action and horror. The movie does a great job of setting suspense leading into the big reveal that they are aging rapidly. Once we get to that point the movie has no idea what to do and just throws craziness into the mix until it starts setting up the ending. It's that static period where this movie gets boring, losing the good will it had garnered.

A family at a fancy resort vacation gets to go to a private beach. There's some story shortcutting with the youngest son Trent asking people their names and jobs. It's forced, even if they tried to make the kid strange by talking about mortgages and the future as a six year old. Shyamalan movies aren't known for great dialog.

Luca Faustino Rodriguez and Thomasin McKenzie play Trent and Maddox

This thankfully doesn't take long to get to the magic beach that is the reason to even watch this. There's plenty of foreshadowing.

This group finds strange things, develop problems, and they even find a dead body. Rapper Mid-sized Sedan, which is an amazing name, sits on the beach as he was there before everyone arrives. His actions are a big strange and never explained. He's there to scare the other characters, but it doesn't make any sense. Why would he just sit on this beach for hours doing nothing? How did he get over the barriers?

The big reveal comes via shots of the kids out of focus or obscuring their faces. It's easy to know what's coming and the movie drags that out past the point of reasonableness. The group discovers they're aging rapidly and can't leave the beach even if they wanted. There's a wild scene just to put a point on the whole situation. That brings up a lot of questions as to what the resort knew about this and their involvement. The resort knew something just with how much and how the food was packed. None of the characters are concerned about that.

One issue I thought this might delve into is the kids. Maddox describes her thoughts from being a child to a young adult and how that has changed. These are children that have the capacity for adult thought but lack the experience that shapes those thoughts.While they understandably act like children, there should be an underlying fear that the movie doesn't address. These moments of reflection and pondering would have helped the pacing. To fill time this movie instead goes wild.

This runs out of steam once we know what's going on. There's no end game, no plan. This doesn't develop the characters past very simple ideas, and it can't let them escape so we just sit there. It's a one trick pony.

I wondered how someone could even find this place and escape. You can't tell anyone. If someone came to help you, they would be trapped too. How would anyone clean up after this group? Does the ocean just wash everything away?

Emun Elliot and Embeth Davidtz also play Trent and Maddox

The resort couldn't have handpicked a group of people with better occupations that would exactly aid in the plot. They all have medical conditions to boot. While there are plenty of clues planted along the way, and everything has a purpose, it just feels too orchestrated.

It's a cool premise and the adjacent question is whether it's worth killing a few people to save thousands or more. The movie doesn't ponder that, it only presents that as a reason for why the events in the movie occurred. The good of the world is greater than the good of one person. It would have helped for the movie to debate that, but it's just not possible with how it's setup and revealed.

When this has a destination, it works well. When it's not working towards the middle or end reveal the movie feels lost. The ending is neat, but lacks any real impact. A faceless entity unleashed these horrors in the name of being helpful, but it's got to be a lucrative business as well. The graphic novel the film is based on, ends without explaining why the beach ages its guests. With this movie unable to develop drama, that would have really hurt the movie. A different writer could have made that work.