"Devil" written & produced by M. Night Shyamalan

[Ed Augusts]

Devil -- Produced by M. Night Shyamalan

Here is a strange tale of a devil who takes vengeance on some evil-
doers... Is it really the devil, then? Or an Angel of the Lord?
Possibly what we have here is an angel gone slightly out of control --
but isn't he -- or she -- an angel, nonetheless? Yea, verily, ALL
angels, good and bad, originated with God who must have known what he
was doing... So goes the tale. This is just one imponderable in this
snappy pic. Another is: Is THIS, perhaps, THE best "elevator movie"
ever made? Or does that laurel branch belong on another head, like
"Down", aka "The Shaft"? That's the one about the haunted Millennium
Building in Manhattan, a film which the fancy critics seem to have
hated, but I thought was kinda cool... pregnant moms & all. Elevator
movies combine the horror of deviltry with the horror of being stuck
in an elevator... as Jenny O'Hara who plays the old lady, says:
"hanging over nothingness" or words to that effect.

From the very start of "Devil", you feel like the world has turned
upside down, or, that you are seeing our world as you've never thought
of it before --- as if you were living in Perth, Australia or
somewhere nearby, so that Philadelphia was at the bottom of the world,
the bridges and tall buildings hanging suspended, and the slate-gray
sky a witch's brew of swirling clouds into which we could very well
fall, fall right off the earth... I have thought of how our place on
the surface of the world depends on where we live, but have never
seen the idea harvested so well as at the very start of this film.
It is also possible that a fiendish creature, a creature of the
darkness, might see the features of our cities as if they were upside
down. Ah! That's it, then: The devil is a berserk angel, after
all; and so, if it is a creature that flies into downtown
Philadelphia, looking for trouble, it is flying upside down, a
creature from some Great Beyond where devils fly upside down. And,
who knows? Maybe they do!

Just after your world is turned upside-down at the opening scenes of
this film, someone obeys the laws of gravity and falls to their death
from an upper story of a great skyscraper. And that death -- an
evident suicide -- is what starts, and justifies, the action that
follows.

Shyamalan's "The Devil" is a great elevator tale. A few other
elevator movies have been made, but this one tops 'em all, as does the
amount of time actually spent in the elevator of this Philadelphia
skyscraper.

It is a great story about what happens when people are forced to get
to know each other by one of those breakdowns that inevitably occurs
in movies like this one... a stuck elevator that nobody seems able to
fix. The minutes turn into hours, it seems, as one person after the
other tries their best to fix the elevator, thn to get into the
elevator.... If I tell you any more, I will be giving away too much!

It is a tale of five strangers who meet in one of the creepiest places
in the world to meet someone -- on an elevator -- where one's personal
aura, his or her envelope of space, is often punctured by the nearby
presence of others.

The characters are well-played, among whom are the following: Chris
Messina as the Philadelphia detective who jumps from investigating a
high-rise suicide to five people trapped on an elevator -- once
violence is detected. Geoffrey Arend is a boorish mattress salesman
who used to run a Ponzi scheme; Logan Marshall-Green plays the former
veteran of the Afghan war who has a dreadful secret in his heart; Mr.
Tough Guy, opposite another tough guy -- the very likable Bokeem
Woodbine. (How can you dislike someone who hates elevators?) Jenny
O'Hara plays perhaps the least interesting character aboard the
elevator: The "old lady" Bojana Novakovic plays the young, wealthy
young wife... The first person to be attacked in the elevator... and,
in real life, born in Serbia, and a recent grad from Australia's
National Institute of Dramatic Art. Jacob Vargas is the
'superstitious' one and Matt Craven, a great character actor, a his
more logical straw-boss in the skyscraper's control room.

It is also, however, a tale of FORGIVENESS, but before the
forgiveness, it is a story of telling the truth. One character NEEDS
to tell the truth, to reveal a great and tragic secret, just as
another character need to hear that truth. (Can it REALLY be the
Devil who sets-up this catharsis? I tell you, by the end of this
movie you may see some of the rays of light faintly shining down from
the distant God!)

The music is timely and well-paced; you don't notice it too much,
which is a good thing, But it is there, in time to the tension.

If you were less than impressed with a few of Shymalan's recent films,
take a big dose of "Devil" as an antidote to any bad feelings you
had! Shyamalan has redeemed himself with this tense and exciting
story.

In his best work since "The Village", (others have said: since
"Signs", but I think that's going too far), the noted Indian
storyteller brings us a tale of the devil. As usual, homespun
folksiness and the simple faith of the simplest of men, stands up next
to violence, darkness, and horror. You could say the devil, whose
last word is "Damn!" loses in this piece, but not within taking his
measure of victims to their graves.

These would not be entirely accurate statements to make, however,
because although Shyamalan produced, other hands and eyes directed a
script that was also helped along by another writer. So, how much of
this is Shymalan's and how much is the work of others, is subject to
some debate. It 'flows' faster, it looks to be better edited, with
shorter, crisper shots than some of Shyamalan's recent offerings.

John Erick Dowdle directed a screenplay written by Brian Nelson. But
the screenplay was based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan. So he was
producing his own story, and no doubt 'pulling the strings' all the
way. Although most critics aren't giving Shyamalan much blame in this
effort, neither is he garnering much praise. Damn! You'd think
they'd give 'the devil' his due! ----------Ed Augusts