M.night Shyamalan's "Old," about the horrors of old age, is a very special work in the director's career. It may not be his greatest work, but it uses an intriguing theme that deals with deep thoughts that don't easily fade even when you're old.
"Old" tells the story of parents Guy (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krebs), their 6-year-old sons Trent (Nolan River), and their 11-year-old daughter Maddox (Alexa Swinton), who go to a picturesque island for a relaxing vacation. And, similar to Shyamalan's other films, "Old" pits nature against humans, with a gorgeous seaside setting providing a stark contrast to both the family drama and the horrific supernatural events that begin to unfold as people begin to age so rapidly that they lose hope of their own. Tomorrow, meanwhile, two families are stranded on the beach, surrounded by natural barriers, which results in many tense moments and instills a sense of dread and despair.
And what increases the pleasure of watching the movie is the veteran cast, as each of them must perform not only his age, but also the age he is moving from and heading to, sometimes all at the same moment and this makes the viewing enjoyment very high due to the amazing performance of the actors in the transmission Every one of them from teenager to middle age right down to old age.
"Old" is based on the graphic novel "Sandcastle" by Pierre-Oscar Levy and Frederic Peters, and the film is at its best when it uses the imminent threat of death from something that is usually a natural cause of panic, as the story discusses some real medical problems such as dementia and cancer, to The last of the diseases of aging, by blending the sharp voice, and capturing the sense of anxiety we feel when we observe the ways in which our bodies break down over decades, these early diseases lead to some states of physical horror, some subtle and some terribly painful.
In this work, the director hired cinematographer Mike Geulukis, who in turn used creative methods to express these horrors in detail, such as close-up shots of the deep lines that permeated the faces of the characters. On the other hand, the movement of the camera did not have the same effect, as it sometimes swung from the central figures to a distant, empty spot on the horizon, underestimating the effect of the real loss taking place on the screen.
The other case in which Old himself undermines is the dialogues. In contrast to the beach that traps the characters, the plot is far from vague, as the many, grueling conversations often provide answers to what ought to be something vague rather than asking us to understand. What is going on ourselves, and it seems as though the director Shyamalan is so aware of his reputation for making twisted endings that some people may miss that he goes the extra mile to explain the mystery before it explodes, and this strategy can make watching Old somewhat frustrating.