Well, his daughter not only listens, respects, and certainly contributes fairly to the family’s upkeep, but does so frantically. Have you ever heard of killing the father? Well, forget it. The story is told of a woman trapped in a forest. This one is in Ireland, but who knows if it’s the same one her father visited in 2004 with Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard. There she will discover a refuge as inexplicable and haunting as the one we saw in Knock on the Door or in every episode of Wayward Pines. There he will come face to face with a kind of ongoing experiment that inevitably associates with the one we saw in ‘Time’. And there he will witness how dreams, legends and myths become reality. Now, what comes to mind is, in fact, the prodigy from ‘The Girl in the Water’. Shyamalan, I said, devours Shyamalan.
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But don’t be in too much of a hurry. If anyone infers from the above paragraph that the film lacks the slightest hint of personality or, as the case may be, originality, they are mistaken. Precisely what is original, and even disturbing, is the conscious abandonment of Shyamalan’s trademark escape from the paternal universe. ‘The Watchmen’ forces the viewer to be constantly attentive. Every frame forces you to wonder, to compare, to doubt. Every idea is a pinch in the memory of the passionate or less passionate cinephile, who thinks he recognises what he sees without being entirely sure. Precise and elegant mise-en-scene, terrifying effects to match, and an unprejudiced sense of extravagance ensure a film session that is as enjoyable as it is surprisingly new, and as essentially familiar. To discover that Shyamalan is not just a director’s last name, but a way of filmmaking cultivated by an entire close-knit family is so rare that it can only be Shyamalan’s idea. Shyamalan is Shyamalan on film and off; it’s Shyamalan the father, the daughter, and the not-so-holy spirit that unites them. Shyamalan, as yet, is not finished. And that’s the right way it should be.
