Movie Review: The Happening

    

The Happening
2008, 91mins, R
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast includes: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Spencer Breslin, Ashlyn Sanchez
Release Date: 13th June 2008

I am not an M. Night Shyamalan hater, so let’s just clear that up from the go. For me The Sixth Sense was a great achievement and other pictures on the directors CV like Unbreakable and Signs are perfectly acceptable slices of entertainment. However following 2006’s critical and financial flop Lady In The Water , Shyamalan was always going to have to pull of something special if to win over some of his detractors once more. Sadly the follow up is The Happening, a film I wanted and tried to like but sadly it may now rather than his 2006 fairytale represent the directors nadir.

The film is ultimately a warning concerning what humans are doing to the planet and I would be the first to admit that it’s at least a worthwhile message the film is flaunting. The Problem is the film is being marketed as a thriller and that’s exactly how the director has fashioned it, so is crippled in the end by a dull lead performance, an awful script and virtually nothing to stimulate excitement or interest. Basically it’s a bad movie.

The film opens in Central park where after a few moments it becomes deadly obvious that something is wrong. Peoples talk becomes garbled, they start moving funny and eventually it turns into a mass and unprovoked suicide .Reports start flying in that it’s a biological terrorist attack and people immediately start to leave the city in search of a less populated area. This includes teacher Elliott (Mark Wahlberg), his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), best friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and his daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). However even as they move into the more open country areas the attacks seem to keep spreading and yet none appear immune to it’s devastating effects.

The performances in The Happening are largely stilted and especially the leading man fails to convince. Mark Wahlberg has talent as an actor and on his CV there are several great performances, but you also have to accept there is a smattering of dismal ones. The Happening represents one of the actors worst efforts on camera, his expression rarely changes and whilst the dialogue he has to say is dribble, it sounds weaker coming out of Wahlberg’s mouth than anybody else. He’s wooden and unconvincing, and it now appears that casting him is a risk, as you’re either going to get good, or very bad.

A normally reliable actress Zooey Deschanel is irritating and bland, suffering from the same one expression syndrome that Wahlberg seems infected by. Granted she’s a little better than he is in her respective role but it’s still not a good enough performance by half. John Leguizamo disappears from proceedings promptly enough but easily supplies the movies most realistic and engaging turn, but little Ashlyn Sanchez provides a weak performance even by child actor standards.

The script is uniformly awful, some of the lines Shyamalan has scribbled can only be described as terrible, and whilst the concept has some promise he manages to wring all interest out of it extremely swiftly. Also the man’s direction is very poor, he seems to have lost the ability to build any form of visual dread and his efforts to try and make landscapes feel foreboding and haunting rarely works. The cinematography is uninspiring and distractingly bland for a movie of this nature. The camera angles are rarely differed and few can hide that Shyamalan shoots it all in the most monotonous of fashions. I think what he was hoping to achieve was some sort of thoughtful ambience, but there is a thin line between being curiously thought driven and just being ponderous in the most lifeless of ways. Sadly the last phrase describes The Happening very aptly.

In the US alot of meat is being shoved to highlight this is Shyamalans first R rated film. It does have some disturbing and graphic sequences and I will confess that a sequence in which a car enters a small town to find it’s locals hanging above, is skillfully shot. Still bar that there are few scares or jolts to enjoy, in The Sixth Sense the helmer brought several great and memorable frights to the table with a PG-13 rating, here whilst it looks a little nastier the fear is virtually absent. Plus there are several annoying plot holes and unbelievable instances. For those who choose to see it ask, “whats making the wind blow?”. I won’t explain what I mean by this but when viewing if you quiz yourself on that topic, it should become instantly clear what I mean.
I didn’t really detect much music in the film and what I heard of Howard’ score sounded suspiciously like his work on Signs. The atmosphere seems to be largely on quiet but unfortunately that only combines with the other aspects to maximize the boredom on show. The Happening is set to be a failure on all counts as the word of mouth will be bad and it’s opening right in the middle of blockbuster season. It disappoints me to say it as I’ve admired his other work, but this could finally mark the end of Shyamalans erratic career and severely stain the CV of all else involved. As a cinematic happening this is one you can really afford to miss.