Old (2021)

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan | 109 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, Emun Elliott, Alexa Swinton, Gustaf Hammarsten, Kathleen Chalfant

“What’s that one movie where Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando play together?” Shortly before cardiac surgeon Charles performs an extremely perilous medical procedure, this successful physician seems almost completely thrown off balance by this rather trivial question. Incidentally, this is not the only strange moment in ‘Old’, the new film from M. Night Shyamalan. The film bombards the viewer with all kinds of curious details, such as a famous rapper who constantly has a bloody nose or the much younger wife of Charles, Chrystal, who flirts with almost every male member of the staff at their resort.

Since his breakthrough film ‘The Sixth Sense’ (1999), Shyamalan has been known for the big plot twists in his films. Funny that the promotional material for the ensemble film ‘Old’ already gives away one of the main twists of the story: a number of American families go to a luxury holiday resort far away from civilization, only to be dropped on a stretch of beach where they can no longer leave. . In addition, the aging process is quite accelerated in this place. About twenty minutes represents one year of life. This has major psychological as well as physiological consequences, such as a wound that turns into a scar in seconds.

Visually, this exceptionally fast healing process for the vacationers makes for the dirtiest scenes. Still, ‘Old’ has not become a horror film along the lines of the ‘Saw’ film series, where every severed limb is celebrated as a goal in a football game. More like a theatrical movie stretched “Twilight Zone” episode, ‘Old’ is one of the better ideas of this American sixties and eighties hit series, where the supernatural reigns supreme (recently picked up again by Jordan Peele among others from ‘Get Out’, 2017).

As was the custom with the “Twilight Zone”, the core idea of ​​’Old’ offers countless opportunities for social criticism. The film also eagerly uses this and is not always subtle in it. For each character, the aging process leads to the obligatory existential crises, which address, among other things, our obsession with social status and certain ideals of beauty. Plus, if that wasn’t enough, Shyamalan fires arrows at the “reality”-obsessed entertainment industry. He also makes fun of himself. In the supporting role of handyman, Shyamalan himself brings the families to this extremely nasty place. Dangling above it, like the sword of Damocles, is the ultimate question: what really matters in life when you barely have more than a day and night?

Yes, all this sounds quite moralistic, verging on pathetic, even a bit conservative, but for such a small Hollywood film the pronounced ‘Old’ is at times quite refreshing, but above all entertaining. It makes its points without any shame and thunders over the viewer like a train. It is reminiscent of social criticism in films such as ‘Snowpiercer’ (Bong Jong Hoo, 2013) or ‘Get Out’. Yet Shyamalan’s film does not reach the level of these films, especially because the ending of ‘Old’ is somewhat disappointing. Certainly with the corona pandemic in mind, the film eventually lapses into somewhat lazy criticism of the pharmaceutical industry. For that, the film is sometimes really dangerous a few times.

Finally, another fun fact. The answer to the question from cardiac surgeon Charles is Arthur Penn’s “Missouri Breaks” from 1976. This film looks almost nothing like ‘Old’ except that it is somewhat eccentric among its genre contemporaries.