The Happening
posted June 12, 2008 11:16 AM
Shyamalan's Happening is a relatively affecting look at the apocalypse
Since his directorial debut The Sixth Sense, more naysayers than yeah-sayers have spoken out on M. Night Shyamalan. Many insist his Unbreakable (often nicknamed Unbearable) signaled a downturn in his ongoing body of work. Still, his projects, while often overly obsessed with semi-religious issues like prophecy and end times, are affecting, and this entry, a proto-messianic saga we might otherwise call “when nature attacks,” is just as strongly made as his previous middle-ground efforts like The Village or Unbreakable (which I didn’t think was so bad). Still, box office on this film could get stuck in the middle ground, though audiences should be comprised of as many willing dissenters as fans.
The Fincher-style opening titles float amidst the clouds in a slowly darkening sky. For Shyamalan’s first R-rated film (which boasts a surprising body count), the world of the film is awfully bright. This is one of many smart choices. After a moment of disorientation in Central Park, during which a woman offs herself with dizzying certitude, we see men mingling at a construction site just before a surplus of workers drop like rag dolls to the sidewalk.
Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) is a high school science teacher with a lackadaisical wife named Alma (Zooey Deschanel). He’s the “good guy” variety of teacher who uses wit and old-world common sense to maintain the interest of his students. Shamelessly theme dropping, Elliot dialogs with his class about “where the bees went,” and oh-so-scientifically concludes that sometimes nature does stuff we can’t explain. (This leaves a funny, intelligent-design-y, bad taste in the mouth.) When told (by principal Alan Ruck) to evacuate, his math teacher buddy Julian (John Leguizamo) reveals that Alma was “never ready” for marriage and later, when he sees her at the train station, Julian tells her he’s really glad she chose to escape Armageddon with them. While I’m less inclined to compare high school and the apocalypse, it’s not hard to see Elliot as something of a mountain climber. I mean, taking on bored teens is one thing, but marrying a bored 25 year old, that’s another tragedy altogether.
Elliot, Alma and Julian make their way out of Philadelphia with Julian’s daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). Due to traffic, Jess’ mother can’t make their train out of town, and when the four get stuck in a Podunk town, Julian opts to go back for his wife. The heroics in these scenes are beautiful: Men and women acting calmly, reassuring those around them that we’re all still humans, here to care for each other, distracting their frightened neighbors with mundane crap like math riddles and the magic of mood rings. It’s not wildly original stuff, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.
Elliot, with the help of a nursery owner, thinks he’s come up with some sort of rhyme/reason for the emergency and survives with Alma and Jess surprisingly well using his speculative theories. An odd but exciting turn by stage/screen veteran Betty Buckley as a widowed, fundamentalist shut in plays upon a slight theme of interpersonal trust, and in this rural farmhouse environment echoes the no-one-is-safe-or-sane philosophy of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. This isn’t just a horror of the apocalypse, in that science or nature is attacking us for (we can only presume) our sins, it’s a big ol’ warpy mirror held up to the people who smell smoke in their own kitchens and point fingers to arsonists. The news calls the tragedy the “work of terrorists,” but the didactic scientists whose speech concludes the film puts the blame squarely on our cruelty to the environment. It’s a touch heavy handed, but instead of looking like a plea for Al Gore’s affections, it comes off as wobbly but sincerely concerned.
Portraying moments of drama and danger with a Hitchcockian lack of ceremony, Shyamalan's mundane depictions of tragedy create a quiet but weighty resonance. This evenhandedness is in palpable contrast to the more melodramatic turns taken by the plot later down the line. Ultimately, though a cataclysm of epic proportions is overtaking the entire Northeast, the drama occurs on a small scale. So while moments of The Happening feel like they ape more epic apocalyptic movies like War of the Worlds, the unrestrained tendencies of such stylistics are wisely contained in the service of smaller, more personal catharsis. Take, for example, the side story of Alma’s “tiramisu date with some guy from work” who now calls her obsessively. When she finally tells Elliot about her non-date, he’s hurt, but later tells her about this really hot pharmacist whose attention he tried to gain by feigning a cough and almost buying “a superfluous bottle of cough syrup” (perhaps the best bit of dialog in the whole film). Her reaction is priceless and grateful, but not held onto for so long as to inspire a melodramatic response in us. The magnitude of the exchange is deep, but never breaks the skin of the film. Terse bits like that stand in counterpoint to scenes like Julian’s departure, during which he tells Alma not to take his daughter “unless she means it.” (And to each actor goes his moment in the sun.)
Though the film features plenty of running, bloodshed and adults acting without the benefit of common sense, the gravity of the situation is irksomely light. In tandem to the buoyant tone, Shyamalan’s childlike obsession with ghosts seems to wane in its import here, while his attachments to haunting remain strong. It’s as if to suggest he lets stories stand in for the less (than) physical threats of our previous evildoings. Perhaps, he’s suggesting, this is what we’ll have left, or perhaps, this is all we have now.
Distributor: Fox
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez,
Betty Buckley, Alan Ruck and Spencer Breslyn
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Horror
Rating: R for violent and disturbing images
Running time: 91 min.
Release date: June 13
16 Comments
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Sri said:
Nice review!
Thanks!
June 12, 2008 9:12 PM
Samantha said:
I happen to be a big fan of M Night Shyamalan's movies, I find him refreshing. This was a good review- thanks for not spewing negativity while still being fair about the ups and downs of the movie.
June 13, 2008 2:00 PM
Bhavesh N. Pattni said:
Nice Review, thanks however in the film the fine touch is missing. Basic idea of the movie is very fine however, the touch that he had in 'The Sixth Sense' is missing. He should actually be trying his hands more on paranormal and occult, coz he is able to treat such subjects well. In 'The Happening' he is unable to lead it to the climax. The anticlimax scene is well treated no doubt. Performance wise, movie is really good - both Mark Wahlberg and Zooey have acted very well. In short, was expecting something better from him but I doubt he is able to meet expectations of many of his fans like me!!! It's just not 'Happening'!
June 14, 2008 8:53 AM
christian rodriguez said:
sorry, but i hate that movie
June 15, 2008 11:38 PM
Anonymous said:
Wonderfull movie and a wonderfull storyteller...if you are always going to be looking for anothe Sixth Sense then get over it!!! He has moved on...so should you!!! Of course the critics hate his movies!! He killed a critic in Lady in the Water!! LOL!! Good for him!!
June 16, 2008 4:17 AM
Nnea said:
I am a fan of M.Night and literally drug my boyfriend to see this movie by my favourite director of all time. I have ALL his movies on DVD and even though he has not been able to live up to the standard he set with "The Sixth Sense", I did not care too much for "Unbreakable", but still bought it, loved "Signs", appreciated his story telling and plots in both "The Village" and "Lady in the Water", I don't know what happened with this movie. It is like the first undeveloped idea for "Signs"! I will be very shocked if it does not have more than a fifty percent drop off from the opening weekend once word gets around on how bad the plot and movie are. I am the last person to put down a movie, especially with such caliber of actors and an A-list writer and director, but this was just plain bad. Forget about the money, but I really want 2 hours of my life spent watching this movie back! It's not about being a critic because even after a movie as bad as this one, I still love M. Night and wish him the best in any future movies. I just don't understand how he could watch and review this movie and think his audience wants to see people killing themselves for an hour and thirty minutes with no, and I mean NO viable explaination. That's all the move is about! I guess one might really need to see it to get what I'm talking about. My friend asked me why the people were killing themselves as seen in the trailer and I told them I too would like to know the answer to that question and I sat down and watched the movie for 2 hours, even till the last frame, giving it every benefit of a doubt and hoping it will pick up, but it never did. If you must see this movie, wait for it to come out on HBO or something and watch it on a very slow day. Believe me, there are NO memorable moment, NOT A SINGLE ONE. A complete and utter waste of time and talent, I meant the actors - Wahlburg, Deschanel, and Leguizamo. What possessed them to sign up for this?...like the movie's plot...I will never understand.
June 16, 2008 8:05 PM
Miguel said:
I have watched this movie with high expectations. M. Night Shaymalan has made good movies, and he is a very fine filmmaker. He know how to use the camera, how to create interesting characters with a lot of subtext.
The Happening is a bad movie, there's no dount. The acting is terrible, the story is bad, the ending is horrible... but even Hitchcock made bad movies. I am not saying Shaymalan is another Hitchcock, but I do believe he is very talented and can make great pieces of work. The idea I was having after I got out of the movie theatre was that he should re-invent himself, even if this means finding scripts from other writers. Writing is one of the most difficult jobs in filmmaking, and writers can't always make masterpieces... but a Great director can always direct great movies if he chooses a great script. Spielberg for example, his first talent, more then being a great storyteller, is the fine instincts when choosing a script... (I won't get into Catch me if you can... or The Terminal...)
Shaymalan is a little bit dry... Why would you make a movie about a event like the end of the world that is so similar to other movies made in recent years? If you make a movie about the Apocalypses itself, then we are talking... but this was just a bad movie. The only interesting character was the lonely lady who thought Elliot and company were going to steal here things...
The acting is so bad I can't believe this was made by Shaymalan, what was he thinking? Is there a reason for such a bad acting? People are killig themselves in the streets and no one seems to care, or be scared.
Well... I'll be waiting for his next effort, I still believe he can do great movies. Shaymalan: don't worry, this has just begun for you! Keep it up... while we critic your work, is not because we don't like you, but is because we know you can do great!
June 16, 2008 10:53 PM
livebroadband said:
Really great review. All the others I read tried to judge, rather than analyze.
June 19, 2008 4:37 PM
Jack Off said:
I saw this movie for free and was mad. I wanted the hour and 45 minutets back. Shamalayns work however is really good, I loved Signs, 6th Sense and Unbreakable. This movie was just bad, I kept waiting for something to happen that would be significant to the plot and the mood ring. However the movie was just lame with Mark Wallberg spewing out unimportant Science facts. So bad.
June 21, 2008 1:44 PM
kiwibloke said:
This was a bit of a disappointment from Shyamalan, however way better and most certainly watchable than the last fiasco - lady in water.
Amazing nobody seems to have noticed the mikes that hang down over the dining table in the scene with Betty Buckley in the farm house. Seemed real amateurish and almost like a home video! Could they not have spotted it and removed the offending mike during the edit stage?
June 22, 2008 1:26 PM
Mitchell said:
All the movies you've created showed great story telling. This one was the only one movie where it was actually bad. No explanations of why the trees or vegtation were angry against the humuans. This event all of sudden happens on this day this time and this era. With no past or prior experiences. Religon was not really a part of this because it was not talked about. No scriptures, no clues, what so ever. The plot was really lacking because it happens in a certain area in the United States and no where else. The ending even grew worse when it was in another part of the world? No patterns and no explanations. Just this time will have a french teacher do the same anaylization in french. And do it all over again. shaymalan must've gotten high during the beginning and middle of the movie. AT the end got sober.
June 26, 2008 12:59 AM
brian samlalsinh said:
the movie was good...a sequel will be great
July 15, 2008 6:42 PM
Payam Gholami said:
Shyamalan is the best in this genre ,
it was good movie like the Sign
July 19, 2008 12:34 AM
parkergrl23 said:
when does it come out on video the happening
August 20, 2008 7:32 PM
parkergrl23 said:
when does it come out on video the happening
August 20, 2008 7:32 PM
parkergrl23 said:
anyone know
August 20, 2008 7:35 PM