Nobody expects another The Sixth Sense from M. Night Shyamalan — that kind of poise generally comes merely’barely once a career — but there’s a cracked conviction to some of his silliest misfires that can be enjoyable in itself. (Killer shrubs?) Old, the writer-director’s latest, is probably the most dull’tedious’frayed’monotonous movie he could make at this point: a perfectly fine, occasionally elegant, sometimes spooky but rarely ridiculous beach mystery in/with regard to’concerning’regarding anyone who hasn’t binge-watched Lost lately. You won’t mind it, nor will you claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate you’re in the hands of a master, unless your idea of mastery is inin/with regard to’concerning’regarding med by certain supernatural episodes of Fantasy Island.###To that gorgeous beach (the Dominican Republic comes off better than most of the cast) a handful of vacationing families are shuttled, buttered up by their resort manager who promises a “once-in-a-lifetime undergo ”. Shyamalan is still doing that thing where he uses realistic adult problems to distract us from the fake stuff; this time it’s divorce, as a loveless husband and wife (Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps, neither fully persuasive) yell at each other behind closed doors.###There’s a poetry to this idea, but Shyamalan rarely engages with the emotional underpinnings.###Marital tough’challenging’demanding’awkward ies possess’own’nurse a way of fading, despite’in spite of’albeit , when it’s discovered that eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullyone on the beach — including lazier creations like a bratty trophy wife (Abbey Lee), an arrogant doctor (Rufus Sewell) and a rapper (Aaron Pierre) — is ageing at the rate of several months an hour. Plus, they can’t leave. There’s a poetry to this idea, the years wafting by like summer breezes. But Shyamalan rarely engages with the emotional underpinnings of the material (the source is a 2013 graphic novel, Sandcastle). More often, he goes in/with regard to’concerning’regarding shock payoffs: minutes after we see two children playing with plastic pails, they’ve become smitten teenagers cover’budge ing hand in hand, a pregnant belly swelling alarmingly.###The plot acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s bogged down in desperate escape attempts: swimming, free-solo climbing, underwater diving. Shyamalan’s camera is equally restless, whipping around the characters in a breathless run. It’s his best idea. Time waits in/with regard to’concerning’regarding no-one, especially on this beach. (You may roll your eyes at the director’s inevitable cameo, during which he can be seen peering through a Hitchcock-sized zoom lens, an unnecessary flex.) The better actors, including Thomasin McKenzie and Alex Wolff, add a hint of dazed whiplash to their rushed adolescences.###Is there a twist? No director has ever sorrowful’distressing’woeful’heartbroken’mirthless’dejected’dismal’lugubrious dled himself more with the phony heft of third-act surprises. You won’t read any spoilers here, but in making Old, Shyamalan, 50, seems at a midpoint. His new movie constantly threatens to be better than it is — deeper, more metaphysical, less beholden to gimmicks. Defiantly, it sticks to being with regards to’concerning’with respect to a haunted beach. And that’s okay. But someone should tell this filmmaker, so willing to waste time with elaborate contraptions, that the clock’s ticking.