Shyamalan's The Happening Doesn't
Eco-Thriller Turns Dull and Disappointing
For years, I have been one of M. Night Shyamalan's biggest supporters. After being blown away by The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, I weathered the derision of my friends who thought his subsequent films were pointless or laughable. Now, after standing by him through some tough times, I'm finally giving up. The Happening is a low-point in Shyamalan's work, an utterly laughable plot with so many problems compounded by poor acting and dull direction.
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley.
Rated
(for
violent and disturbing images)Running time: 91 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 3 out of 10.
The premise of The Happening centers on fear: fear of the unknown, fear of dying, and fear of being alone. It begins in New York City where, without any preamble, everyone in Central Park suddenly stops moving. Actually, there's one person in the scene who seems unaffected, who reacts to it all, but why that person was unaffected is never explained.
Suddenly people all over New York are killing themselves. It's a fast-acting and morbid phenomenon. Some of the scenes are downright chilling. Sadly, the effect would have been greater if most of the scenes hadn't been used in previews.
The scene then shifts to a high school in Pennsylvania where science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is pulled from his class as the administration gives the faculty the gruesome news. Fear and panic begin to set in. Elliot's colleague Julian (John Leguizamo) invites Elliot and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) to join his family in leaving the city for the perceived safety of the countryside.
Once on the train, they hear reports that Philadelphia has succumbed to the same mysterious event. More fear, more panic, more feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.
Worst still is the acting. I've never been a huge fan of Wahlburg, but I've never seen him so wrong for a role before. He's playing a typical nice guy and a science teacher. For some reason, he comes across as a brainless villain. He's not caring, he doesn't seem to be logical at all. His only reason for being the star of the film is that he manages to live the longest.
More disappointing, to me, is Deschanel's performance. Her work in past films has been outstanding (see the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series Tin Man). Here, her character isn't merely two-dimensional. It's practically non-existent. She fades into the background and is hardly memorable.
The strength of past Shyamalan films has been in the underlying theme. The Sixth Sense is a story of unfinished work. Unbreakable is about identity. Signs tells a story of faith. The Village is about the power of myth. Lady in the Water is about community.
The Happening is a horror film that centers on fear, but there's not much to pin that fear on. The threat is so ambiguous and unseen, it's like jumping at shadows. The resolution of the film is equally ambiguous and unsatisfying.
The film makes a point of noting the mystery of nature. Science may come up with an explanation why something happened, but it can never fully understand how nature works. The problem is that the story fails to follow its own rules. As a result, the story doesn't work.
When I saw the first previews of The Happening, I had hopes that Shyamalan would put together another psychological drama on the level of Signs. Instead, he gives us a film with a political message that is pounded into the audience by the time the credits role. After several years of declining popularity, there's no doubt that Shyamalan has failed even his biggest fans.
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