Old is the new movie by M Night Shyamalan and this one takes place at an island resort where a family (Vicky Crepes, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alexa Swinton and Nolan River) is looking to enjoy a beach holiday together but one day they and other guests of the resort are invited to a secluded beach away from the resort and the longer they stay on the beach they begin to get older very quickly and now the race is on to get off the beach before they grow too old and die.
Old was a movie I had very high reservations going into and that is down to M Night Shyamalan who has been in every possible direction in his career, terrifying lows/dizzying highs and creamy middles and he was coming off Split which I loved and Glass which bitterly disappointed me though the preview for Old had me intrigued.
And that intrigue surprisingly paid off for me as I quite liked Old and there are 2 reasons for this:
- The first is Shyamalan’s storytelling, this movie was proof for me that when M Night gets out of his own way and doesn’t try to be too clever by half or hinge everything on a big twist ending or try to subvert everyone’s expectations he can still deliver an effective drama thriller like this one, I know this is based off of a graphic novel but M Night did a good job here and I found myself really invested in the thriller aspect of the film and the drama aspect, there is a twist of course but it was one that I surprisingly liked and was reminded a little of his 2004 film the Village.
- The second is that this movie is anchored by a really good cast who rise to the occasion, Crepes and Bernal are quite good as the parents while River and Swinton are good as well as the young kids who when they get older on the beach are played by Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie and their pretty good too McKenzie in particular is becoming a good young actress and I can’t wait to see her in Last Night in Soho later this year.
As for the rest of the cast, Rufus Sewell is pretty good as a doctor stuck on the beach as is Abbey Lee as his young wife and Eliza Scanlen from Little Women as the grown up daughter of Abbey Lee’s character, Ken Leung is good as well and really the whole ensemble cast delivers as well and that makes a big difference as opposed to Glass where the cast was very hit and miss.
And so that was Old and before I too grow old and die of old age I will say that this movie is surprisingly worth a watch if you can find it, 3 and a half out of 5.
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