Sunday, June 15, 2008

by Ari

I'm not too interested in processing the disaster that is The Happening. To spend any considerable amount of time analyzing the ineptitude of M. Night Shyamalan's latest thriller is giving the film more attention than it deserves. I'm not entirely sure I can accurately describe how nonsensical and absurd this movie is, but if you can somehow muster the energy and interest in witnessing a talented filmmaker completely self-destruct, then by all means see it.

It's too difficult to explain The Happening because the film itself is an attack on logic. There is not one single moment of sensible storytelling in the film's 90 minutes. Beyond the horrible acting and flat attempts at visual suspense, The Happening is one of the most poorly written films by an established talent in quite some time. I've read Shyamalan call the film his B movie in recent interviews, but based on the seriousness of several dramatic sequences and the painful, insulting political commentary that concludes the story, I just don't buy it. I think it's become clear he was greatly affected by the mixed response to his best work, Unbreakable, and that this critical and commercial split is the source of his quiet (or in The Happening's case - not so quiet) resentment of his audience. It's unfortunate no matter how you assess the situation, but I do wish he would get over it and think about what he's writing.

Shyamalan obviously has the skill to create tension and thrills, but that skill is nowhere to be found in this movie. Plants release a toxin that manipulates chemicals in the human mind and causes mass suicide across the East coast. The toxin spreads by the wind. In a catastrophic case of miscasting, the great Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher who has a few issues with his vacant wife played by the beautiful and wasted Zooey Deschanel. Once "the event" takes over Philadelphia ("it's a terrorist attack!" ugh), everyone tries to evacuate. After one of the many ridiculous supporting characters presents a theory about the plants, there's actually a sequence where Wahlberg and a few others try to outrun the wind (cue Hitchcockian music) . Other unintentionally amusing moments involve the line, "be scientific, douchebag!" and an iPhone recording of a man feeding his arms to a lion.