The Happening Review
by tom elce (dr-pepperite AT hotmail DOT com)June 17th, 2008
The Happening (2008)
3 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, Victoria Clark, Tony Devon, Frank Collison, Jeremy Strong, Ashlyn Sanchez, Stéphane Debac, Edward James Hyland, Robert Bailey Jr.
Rated: R (MPAA), 15 (BBFC)
Though not to be ranked alongside the more accomplished films of his resume ("The Sixth Sense" and "Signs"), M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" is a welcome improvement on his most recent works, as visually sumptuous as both "The Village" and "Lady in the Water" but with something more notable going on underneath the surface. For his latest, a paranoid creeper that poses some rather pat questions on out impact on the environment, he's thankfully toned down the smugness some saw in his previous films, reeling himself in to churn out a film that doesn't seem like another cinematic ego trip. "The Happening" is flawed, for sure, and the more one thinks about the film the more the seams begin to show. The quiet unease Shyamalan aims for is nonetheless achieved, the end product sticking in the viewers mind for all its imperfections.
Teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is interrupted while leading a science class to be told, along with the rest of the faculty, that an event is happening and the pupils must be sent home. There appears to have been a chemical attack of some sort, messing with people's minds and causing mass suicides. As workmen casually walk of buildings, zoo employees silently feed themselves to lions in their enclosures and passersby appear to shut down before taking their lives, Elliot, along with his distant wife Alma (Zooey Deschane), math treacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and Julian's daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), attempts to escape the scene via a train transporting the New Yorkers out of the city. The fact that the outbreak seems to be recurring in smaller populations all about the North East, however, does not bode well for the passengers, especially when their train comes to a sudden halt and they find themselves stranded in a middle-of-nowhere small town.
Can a motion picture about mass hysteria and unexplained phenomenon among the population these days not come equipped with an enironmentally-conscious message to piledrive home? Shyamalan's screenplays have always been hampered by some unsubtle message- shouting, and for "The Happening" the story eventually reveals itself to be but an excuse for a bit more eco-guilt-tripping. Originally thought to be the result of a terrorist attack, the mass phenomenon slowly begins to find cause when characters begin to theorize on why everything started in parks and where plant life is in good supply. Where this ultimately goes is a dark, sporadically hopeless place that forces the characters to accept that they're facing something that simply cannot be escaped. A scene in which a woman talks to her daughter over the phone and hears her rapidly deteriorate before (it seems) doing as so many already have is preceded by a warning to the girl not to go near "the window with the tree" again.
Like the formidable "Sixth Sense" and "Signs," "The Happening" has its fair share of haunting frames, Shyamalan's new alternatives to the ending of the former and the first glimpse of an alien in the latter being a disturbing scene in which a car carrying Julian drives ahead to see many people hanging from trees, a sequence (shamelessly given away in the trailers) of men literally jumping to their deaths and the moment (again sold away in the ad campaign) when the phenomenon hits at the beginning of the film. Unlike the aforementioned films, there are no particular lines of dialogue that strike the definitive not Shyamalan has been known for in the past. The best alternative to "Sense"'s 'I see dead people' that I could put forward being - of all things - 'cheese and crackers.'
The performances aren't exactly even throughout, Mark Wahlberg inevitably standing out as lead protagonist Elliot Moore. So unlike his performances both award-worthy ("The Departed") and bland ("Shooter") in his recent filmography, his here is restrained but still impactful, imaging with Elliot the sort of bland everyman these sorts of movies are practically made for. This isn't career-best form, but he's good all the same. The same can be said for John Leguizamo, who feels a little like he's bringing to the table similar performances from his past but who breaks out to really shine in certain scenes, no time moreso than in his crushing final scene. Less good are Ashlyn Sanchez as youngster Jess, unable to compete with her older cast members, and Zooey Deschanel, a pair of confused eyes and, disappointingly, not much else in a performance a mile away from the calibre of her still-memorable supporting work in 2007's magical "Bridge to Terabithia."
The idea of many people inexplicably taking their own lives could have made for a terrifying, even masterful horror film. Alas, the missteps are too regular for "The Happening" to transcend the barrier between good and great. The characters at best are threadbare, defined only by lazy types (Alma doesn't show her emotions, Julian uses math and percentages to make himself feel better, and so on), the story isn't exploited nearly enough, becoming repetetive in the scenes were people begin killing themselves, getting bogged down too in what happens among the circle of people Elliot and co. are with when more information on the state of the rest of the cities might have been helpful, and the whole thing feels more than a little monotonous by the time the final third begins, the tone so pinned-down that something as schizophrenic as Shyamalan's own "Lady in the Water" might have been appreciated.
If nothing else, "The Happening" is a step up from the recent output of a filmmaker with such massive potential, redeeming himself in part for two back-to-back failures without succeeding by his earlier standards either. The film is a hollow horror, a decent little movie lacking depth, worth watching once but likely to grate on the nerves on second viewing.
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