Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Old Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 15, 2021

M. Night Shyamalan's reputation has fallen on hard times. The filmmaker who burst onto the scene with 1999's The Sixth Sense and later dazzled with Unbreakable and delighted with Signs has never quite regained the momentum from his early film career, releasing increasingly panned movies and hitting rock-bottom with The Happening. With his latest Shyamalan efforts to return to a style of metaphysical suspense that served him so well in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Old is not an offshoot of those films, but its admirable efforts to dig deeply into the human condition and merge physical and emotional upheaval is to be commended. The film does not always work, but it works well enough as an interesting case study of the human condition, accelerated.

Guy and Prisca Cappa (Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps) are on the verge of divorce. She's been unfaithful behind his back and, more, she's dealing with a burgeoning medical issue. The couple, along with their children Trent (initially played by Nolan River and, later, Luca Faustino Rodriguez, Alex Wolff, and Emun Elliott) and Maddox (initially played by Alexa Swinton and, later, Thomasin McKenzie and Embeth Davidtz), vacation at a posh resort for one final time together as a family before the parents drop a double dose of bad news on the children. After arriving the the resort, they are taken to a very private and exclusive beach along with a couple of other families. It does not take long for the beachgoers to realize that there's something amiss. A dead body washes ashore. The children grow and age at an exponential rate. The adults age and begin to deteriorate. Minor medical issues are suddenly very much real concerns. They soon realize that the beach is somehow aging them, rapidly. There's no recourse; returning the way they came and swimming out into the ocean only leaves them blacked out. As the bodies age and grow, mental conditions deteriorate and emotional responses become ever more dangerously unhinged.

A chilling premise and some genuinely creepy scenes keep Old infinitely watchable, even if it's apt to leave the audience feeling squeamish and uncomfortable. And that's the point. If the movie is effective in any way it’s in that it challenges its audience to contemplate the aging process, how it impacts their own body and mind and the world around them. The audience is further challenged to face its own fears of aging, disease, and the physical, mental, and emotional transformations that are a result. But the real challenge for these characters, and the audience, is not the physical changes and breakdowns. It’s the mind. It’s how the characters cannot cope with the sudden changes to their reality. The mind is always lagging behind, unable to process so much change so fast, never mind process all of the external challenges: finding dead bodies, watching others fall apart in their own ways, grasp their sudden new reality. Shyamalan, working on his own script sourced from the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, never quite nails the intensity behind the mental component, focusing a bit more on the physical, but even if the film is far from perfect in its reach it’s quite the fascinating journey both superficially and as far as it digs below the surface.

Like everyone waits for Arnold to work in a “I’ll be back,” audiences await the twist in an M. Night Shyamalan movie. This one's twist is not particularly interesting and it's not difficult to guess from a mile away (literally, give or take, as the case may be). One could write a treatise on the truth behind the story as it is revealed in the final minutes, but it feels like the easiest way out and it's certainly lacking creative vision or dramatic interest. Even audiences who somehow didn't see it...exactly it or something along the same lines...will be left saying, "that's it?" If nothing else the rest of the movie is fine, well acted for the most part, even if the characters themselves are uninteresting vessels. Much of the movie simply teeters on the knife's edge of excellent and poor, which is why it probably so divided critics and audiences. Still, it's one of Shyamalan's better films, particularly in the post Signs era when his decline began.

Old Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Old of course looks new, young, and fresh on Blu-ray. the picture is largely impeccable, offering excellent clarity and color reproduction throughout. Most of the film takes place during the course of a day on the beach. It's sun-drenched and surrounded by beautiful blue waters and skies. Opposite is sand and a tall earthen cliff with some dots of natural greenery scattered around the frame in the background. These colors come together with beautiful natural harmony and vitality. Clothing and a few other colors offer nice splashes of support throughout. Black levels are excellent, whether when the camera ventures to the darkened, cavernous point of entry (but not exit) and as day turns to night. Detail is strong. The picture yields crisp, well defined facial details in addition to sharply defined sand and rocky surfaces. It can't match the UHD for total sharpness but the movie never feels shortchanged, texturally, on Blu-ray. The picture is clean and efficient. There are no encode problems to report.

Old Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Old features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The track offers little in terms of real discrete overhead usage but the symphony of natural beachside sounds are certainly very enveloping and authentic. Waves splash through with regular movement; the track is always in a state of sonic interest as the location ambience proves very well pronounced and integrated. The listener will always be spatially aware as waves crash onto the sand here and there throughout the listening area. Music is well pronounced with some solid depth, and the low end kicks in to support a critical underwater scene late in the film. Otherwise, dialogue drives most of the listening experience. It is delivered cleanly, clearly, efficiently, and with excellent prioritization from the front-center channel.

Old Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Old contains four featurettes and a handful of deleted scenes. DVD and digital copies are included with purchase.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 8:16 total runtime): Included are Cold Open, Maddox Overlooked, Guy and Prisca Have a Moment, Spa Options, Trent's Trunk, Mirror Mirror, Despair, Maybe They're on Their Way?, Patricia's Loss, and Birthday Party.
• Shyamalan Family Business (1080p, 8:05): Shyamalan's daughter serves as a second unit director on the film and discusses growing up with a famous filmmaker. M. Night also discusses how his relationship with his daughters kept him feeling "at home" during the shoot. Also: his other daughters' contributions to the film.
• All the Beach Is a Stage (1080p, 9:37): Shyamalan discusses the film's setting and structure. The piece also explores cast and performances, the film's tone (and the tone within the larger M. Night canon), photography, and more.
• Nightmares in Paradise (1080p, 7:27): Exploring the shooting locations.
• A Family in the Moment (1080p, 6:18): Cast and crew remember making a particularly emotional scene in the film. Also: a ceremony to "thank the beach" at the end of shooting.

Old Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's great to find a movie that actually tries to broach a topic rather than just slather the screen with mindless drivel, a movie that aims to entertain with thought provoking purpose rather than empty content. Whether it's fully effective is another question, but the effort is most welcome and the movie is very enjoyable, even if it doesn't quite reach a full-on metaphysical treatise on life and death and the process that moves the former to the latter. Still, it's Shyamalan flirting with the kind of movies that put him on the map and his fans will certainly want to check it out. Universal's Blu-ray is excellent, as expected: video and audio presentations are top-notch and the supplements are fine. Recommended.