Big Picture Big Sound

M. Night Shyamalan movies are largely built around two important aspects of any film: build-up and execution. Sure, all movies need to successfully conquer both to warrant praise or recommendation, but Shyamalan has made his career on the art of the twist. His latest, "Old," is a bit of an uneven journey, but it is moderately successful in what Shyamalan has done so well with his past movies.

Every new Shyamalan movie reopens discussion of his career and stature as a filmmaker. Love him or hate him, Shyamalan's Hollywood trajectory has been fascinating. He made his directorial debut with a movie called "Praying with Anger" in 1992, following it up in 1998 with "Wide Awake." Neither film have much of a footprint, but 1999 is when he would be put on the map in a major way. "The Sixth Sense," which is largely remembered for its shocking twist, was released at the tail end of the summer that year (which doesn't often inspire hope for a movie's quality) and went on to make over $600 million worldwide. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture - a particularly impressive accomplishment, given there were only five nominees at that time, and the Academy has a bias against genre films - and Shyamalan for Best Director. Shyamalan was a talent to watch.

He followed up the success of "The Sixth Sense" with "Unbreakable" and "Signs," two more lucrative and entertaining thrillers, but things started to take a turn, quality-wise, around "The Village," which launched a run of movies that are best left unmentioned. In recent years, Shyamalan seems to be slowly coming back into favor, with expanded universe movies like "Split" and "Glass," but he has yet to capture the run he began in the late 90s and early aughts.

"Old' sits comfortably in some sort of middle ground as it features an intriguing premise but some suffers bumps along the way. Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) take their children on a tropical vacation, where they are greeted at their hotel with drinks and plenty of candy and snacks for the children. The hotel manager suggests they take a trip out to a remote island to relax, enjoy the water, and soak up some sun. They do, along with a group of other guests from the resort, but immediately things start to feel uneasy. Guy and Prisca's children start to change, subtly at first, until they are all of a sudden teenagers (played by Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie). As the hours begin to pass, everyone experiences changes to their mind and body.

It's fair to assume the basic set-up of what's going on in "Old," but Shyamalan sticks the landing in bringing the story full circle. As things become increasingly suspicious on the beach, he infuses a great deal of unease and tension along the way. Some of the dialog between the characters is distractingly stilted, but Shyamalan movies are primarily judged on how they end, and the writer/director brings "Old" over the finish line to success.

To keep speaking in generic statements in order not to give anything away, some events on the beach feel too convenient or aren't properly addressed, but there's a palpable sense of dread throughout. Shyamalan doesn't always seem to have as firm a grasp on his recent screenplays as he did early in his career, but "Old" offers some summer thrills at the movies.