The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, The Village, we know his resume so let’s skip that part, after all you’re only as good as your last movie, in this case M Night Shyamalan is officially hit and miss.
As with his previous work, there is no shortage of suspense built on an interesting premise, however the pacing and pay off just don’t seem to be there this time around.
The story starts with an interesting premise if nothing else, something is causing people to kill themselves in some of the most gruesome ways imaginable with no warning or reason…good start right? Fearing a terrorist attack those left alive begin to flee the cities in search of safety, only to find that they are heading into the source of the crisis…still sounds interesting. The suicides are shown in some brutal detail at times, without going into the Saw/Hostel level of gore overkill, but the shock wears off after time. Where the movie really falls off however is in building characters the audience actually wants to see survive, there just wasn’t that connection.
Just by looking at the names the cast should have been able to deliver a solid film, Mark Wahlberg continues to deliver some good performances, but being cast as a high school science teacher just didn’t seem to fit. Zooey Deschanel is always enchanting and has a career on the rise, but her subdued performance here didn’t really show her potential, and as a result we don’t really connect with her character. John Leguizamo, may have been the most compelling character, torn between protecting his daughter and looking for his wife; sadly his time in the film to be entirely too brief.
As the story progresses there are a few places where Shyamalan is able to build suspense quite effectively, however there never seems to be a pay off, the tension rises, and then just drops off. The big secret also seems to be revealed too quickly, and once the cat is out of the bag the threat seems far less menacing.
Over all The Happening is certainly not the best work by anyone involved. Even though it may have only been me holding out hope for something better to come, I didn’t turn it off before the end, so that has to count for something.
Rent it, but only if you have a coupon and can’t find something else.
Runtime: 91 minutes (feels like a full 2 hours.)
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