Film Review: Old

Old is the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan, and it’s adapted from the Swiss graphic novel, Sandcastle, by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. It follows a family consisting of Guy Cappa (Gael García Bernal), his wife, Prisca (Vicky Krieps), and six-year-old son, Trent (Nolan River), and 11-year-old daughter, Maddox (Alexa Swinton), as they visit a remote tropical resort. When they get there, the manager informs them of a secret, secluded beach in the island’s nature preserve that he would like to invite them to. The family agrees, and takes a bus ride with another group to the location.

What seems like a beautiful, private space at first soon takes a sinister turn. Not only do they find a dead body in the water, but something strange starts happening to the children. They’re getting older, and at a remarkably fast rate. The largest chunk of the film has Trent and Maddox played by Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie, respectively. They encounter other visitors at the beach, and the adults try to figure out what is going on, and how to escape since some unseen force keeps making everybody black out if they try to leave the vicinity. But it becomes clear that the children aren’t the only ones on a ticking clock.

While I may not love all of M. Night Shyamalan’s films, I have a strong appreciation for most of them. He’s a filmmaker that swings for the fences, and relies on his gut instinct with every project, basically to a stubborn degree. Even though you more or less know what you’re gonna get with each film he makes, he’ll still find ways to surprise you, or at the very least, catch you completely off guard. I think Glass did that for a lot of people, and it’s a film I’ve warmed up to more and more as time went on, and I feel it might be the same with Old.

Obviously, as one might be able to tell from the premise, the film is largely using its thriller template to explore the fear of aging, and coming to terms with one’s mortality. It presents the effects of age in striking ways, and certainly more poignant than something like The Visit. But it goes a little bit deeper than that. It touches on how we use the time we have, and how our choices can affect us down the line in ways we can’t fathom in the moment, especially if we dwell on the small, petty things that puts a divide between us and our loved ones.

However, there’s another layer maybe Shyamalan did not even intend. As I was watching the film, I can’t help but make connections to what a lot of us experienced in 2020 with the pandemic. And I know it might seem tacky to make connections to films that clearly weren’t about that like we did to films like Palm Springs. However, when one character talks about how she is going to miss all the cool things she would have done at her age – at this point in the film – like going to prom and graduating, I can’t help but think about all the kids who similarly missed out on these big milestones. Many younger people were forced to grow up faster than they should have last year, sometimes because they had to learn to deal with a worldwide crisis, and sometimes because they had to watch a loved one die through a tablet because they couldn’t enter the room in the hospital.

The English translation of the graphic novel was released in 2011, and having not read it, I don’t know how faithful Shyamalan was to the material. However, the casting was first reported in May of 2020, so I imagine the bulk of the writing process happened in those first few months of 2020, before all the closures and lockdowns started happening. I don’t know how much the pandemic informed the shoot when they started principal photography in September, but the film, whether intentional or not, captures the feeling I think a lot of folks felt throughout 2020, and it might be the best “pandemic film” we’ve gotten so far, even if it’s not explicitly about it.

Now, with all this talk of mortality, the pandemic, and all these heavy subjects, it helps that the film itself is a ton of fun. It’s a hell of a ride that gets you intrigued from the beginning, and it doesn’t let up until the very end. The aging element allows Shyamalan to really lean on body horror, and he doesn’t hold back. I’m surprised this film got away with a PG-13 because there are some really gnarly sequences that push the rating to the absolute limit. The story keeps you guessing, and at nearly every turn, it goes to places you don’t expect or see coming. I can’t imagine anyone watching this, and getting bored.

Admittedly, some of the entertainment value does come from the various…let’s call them “quirks” that Shyamalan is notorious for. From bizarre lines and characterizations to allowing otherwise terrific actors to make questionable line deliveries, to the inevitable twist. Look, at this point, you’re either with it, and have accepted it or are willing to look past these superficial elements so you can actually engage with the film, or you just need to admit to yourself that his style does little for you, and this ain’t worth your time. Either way is fine, just be honest with yourself. I think his amusing writing style adds a ton of personality, and it helps that he is still a compelling visual stylist. The cinematography from his most recent regular collaborator, Mike Gioulakis, is fantastic in how it plays with space, withholds information until the right moment for maximum impact, and lingering on the horrified faces of our characters. In addition to that, the editing from Brett Reed and score from Trevor Gureckis do a great job in building and heightening the tension.

I don’t know if M. Night Shyamalan is in on the joke at this point, if he’s become more self-aware of his tendencies as a storyteller, because it did feel like that at a few points in the film because the film really is all his habits cranked to 11. Although, if you watch any interview with the guy, he doesn’t seem like someone with a strong grasp on irony. His earnestness has typically been his greatest asset. Regardless, Old was a film that I had a blast with. It’s Shyamalan at his most playful, his most ruthless, and in a way, his most human. Within all the genre thrills and nasty sequences, there is a heart here, one that explores the complexities of the human condition within a wildly short time frame, and somehow makes it resonate. Despite the occasional awkwardness, most of the actors do a good job with the stilted dialogue, and they sell the moments of emotional intensity well. Abbey Lee and Rufus Sewell are two standouts among the cast. I also must note that the makeup work is top notch in showcasing the slower aging process on the adults. Unfortunately, the one part of the film that did not work for me was the big reveal, as I don’t think it adds anything particularly meaningful to the story, especially on a thematic level. Maybe there’s something I’m missing, maybe it will grow on me, I don’t know, but it literalizes the film’s plot in a way that clashes with how well it worked purely as metaphor. Obviously, it isn’t a flawless film, I think there’s also something to be said about Shyamalan’s less than sensitive handling of mental illness, but despite the ending and some of the more curious choices, I had such a good time, and it’s a film that I’ve kept thinking about long after seeing it. I’m glad that Hollywood is still letting this absolute weirdo do his thing, and I’d rather watch stuff like this 10 times outta 10 over a film that is perhaps technically more proficient and naturalistic in its delivery but is otherwise devoid of risk, imagination, and personality.

And by the way, for anyone reading this after seeing the film, and are wondering, the answer is 1976’s The Missouri Breaks. If you know, you know.