The Happening Review
by Homer Yen (homeryen88 AT gmail DOT com)June 24th, 2008
Something "Happening" But Not Sure What
by Homer Yen
(c) 2008
Weird things are happening in "The Happening". That's expected since the film was penned by the same person who brought us the clever "The Sixth Sense". M. Night Shyamalan has always presented films that harbor strange and unexpected ideas that make you scratch your chin and go "hmmm." This one is no different.
"The Happening" is a thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity. There is a chilling build-up for the first 20 minutes of the film as some kind of unexplained phenomenon begins to envelop the greater Eastern Seaboard. People begin to lose their senses, and they start to do things that ultimately lead to their deaths. There are unsettling-but-brilliant examples such as what happens to construction workers working atop a high-rise. There are more gruesome examples such as an incident at the city zoo. If you have a morbid fascination regarding different ways people wind up killing themselves, then you'll find the presentation to be chock-full-of-ideas. But, this is not the kind of creepy-cool storytelling along the lines of Shyamalan's breakout film, "The Sixth Sense". It's more along the lines of "War of the Worlds" in which some kind of unknown enemy wreaks havoc upon an unsuspecting and unprepared society.
With regards to Shyamalan's oeuvre of work, this is the first to have an "R" rating. And that's too bad because much of the violence didn't seem necessary because the onset of this catastrophe is unsettling unto itself. The portent of really-bad-things-about-to-happen is represented by the sudden rustling of the leaves and a strange wind that mysteriously emerges. Kudos go to the great cinematography, which ably captures the ominous feel of the wind's weight upon the foliage. Is this some kind of terrorist attack? Is it a side effect of global warming? Is it some weird act of nature? It's almost like asking an auto mechanic what makes that disturbing clunking sound when you drive. The mechanic may or may not know. But the point is that when you hear that funny sound when you drive, the car is very dangerous to others.
The story centers on a couple (Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) and a child (Ashlyn Sanchez) that they need to take care of. The odd thing about the film is that while these three barely manage to stay together, the movie's texture does not. The film suffers from multiple personality disorder. There didn't seem to be a theme that cohesively held it together. In one scene, a separate group of people succumb to this phenomenon. In another scene, they encounter shotgun-wielding lunatics. In another, the three come upon a traumatized old woman. It's one movie title with three separate and distinct acts.
Though I wasn't impressed with how the film was strung together, I did like Mark Wahlberg's insouciance and his every-man appeal. I liked the director's ability to turn simple things like a model home or a meadow or even a pastoral town into settings that are sinister. And, the premise behind what caused this catastrophe and the message in the film gives me pause. I'm always interested in how Shyamalan thinks. Sure, I would've enjoyed it more if it did away with the self-inflicted carnage and kept it to a PG-13 rating. But, after all, it's the thought that counts.
Grade: C+
S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 3 out of 3
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