The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
New tricks
Shyamalan crafts compelling supernatural thriller ‘Old’ from a French graphic novel
One year for Father’s Day, the daughters of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan gave him “Sandcastle,” a 2011 graphic novel from France by writer Pierre Oscar Levy and artist Frederik Peeters. ¶ The writer-director of interesting films ranging from 1999’s ‘The Sixth Sense” to 2017’s “Split” has turned it into “Old,” one of his most inspired efforts in the last decade. ¶ With highly calculated camera work and constant tension, Shyamalan pulls you into this tale — about a group of folks who find themselves trapped on a secluded beach, where they age rapidly — and entrances you even while making you regularly uncomfortable. ¶ In the film’s production notes, the writer-director says he wanted “Old” to feel like a two-hour “Twilight Zone” episode and, despite a few small script issues, he accomplishes that in a highly entertaining fashion.
“Old” begins with a family about to enjoy their and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) are heading toward a last vacation together, as Guy (Gael García Bernal) separation, which may not come as a complete surprise to their children, 11-year-old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton) and 6-year-old son Trent (Nolan River).
When they arrive at the Anamika Resort, located in some tropical part of the world, they are welcomed to a “version of paradise” by the resort manager (Gustaf Hammarsten). His assistant (Francesca Eastwood) offers the adults cocktails that, she says, are based on their previously indicated food-and-beverage preferences.
Soon, the family is encouraged by the manager to visit a private beach the next morning, him telling them he only invites certain guests to visit and that they can be taken by shuttle in the morning.
Also on the trip the next day are an intense cardiothoracic surgeon, Charles, (Rufus Sewell); his elderly mother, Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant); his much younger wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee) and their 6-yearold daughter, Kara (Kylie Begley). The shuttle driver (Shyamalan) leaves them with what seems like an inordinate amount of food to carry, but he insists that children eat a lot and that they should take it all.
Also on the beach this day are a rapper who goes by Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre) and long-married
couple Jarin (Ken Leung) and Patricia (Nikki AmukaBird).
While this ethnically diverse group of people come from different professional backgrounds, we will learn more about something some of them have broadly in common.
The rapid aging first is noticed in the children, who are, in fact, extremely hungry. Although the cameras under the control of director of photography Michael Gioulakis — a regular
Shyamalan collaborator — avoid showing us this for a while, Maddox, Trent and Kara are noticeably larger and older (and are now portrayed by Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff and Eliza Scanlen, respectively).
To say much more about what happens on this beach would be to spoil, but understand that a lot of it is similarly and supernaturally strange.
This brings us to a minor frustration with the script: Once strange become a frequent and regular occurrence, the characters continue to express total disbelief toward each new development for too long. It’s distracting, as is the fact that the viewer often knows what’s going on with a character well before he, she or those around him or her do.
While the performances by Krieps (“Phantom Thread”) and García Bernal (“Mozart in the Jungle”) help us become somewhat invested in the fate of their family, the most compelling acting is turned in by an intense Sewell (“The Man in the High Castle”) as Rufus increasingly becomes a problem for others with whom he’s trapped. In general, though, the ensemble is large enough where it’s difficult for anyone to make all that much of an impression.
The real star is Shyamalan’s direction.
With “Old,” he worked for the first time away from his native Philadelphia, where his movies tend to be set, as is the Apple TV+ series with which he’s involved, the hitand-miss “Servant.” He shot “Old” during the novel coronavirus pandemic in the Dominican Republic, and perhaps getting away energized him.
He captivates with the film as he and Gioulakis constantly shift the focus of the frame to, from and around characters and key moments in the story. It’s entrancing. Strangely, the ending of “Old” — which is said to differ from that of “Sandcastle” — is where Shyamalan’s writing is stronger than his direction. As constructed, the important sequence doesn’t have the crackle and pop it deserves, but from a storytelling perspective, it is largely satisfying.
The day Shyamalan’s daughters gave him “Sandcastle” has led, years later, to a movie that should prove to be a gift for the filmmaker’s fans.