What Happened to "The Happening"?

The Happening, M. Night Shyamalan's latest thriller, attempts to add yet another scenario to the ever growing "Reasons for the Apocalypse" list. Some recognizable theories on the Apocalypse list include zombies, viruses, and robots. Shyamalan adds one more that has not been previously dealt with, at least outside of the villainess Poison Ivy in the Batman comics. He adds "Death by Homicidal Plants" to the "Reasons for the Apocalypse" list.

The movie begins in New York City, Central Park to be specific. The opening consists of people stopping, as if they were suddenly put into a trance similar to the opening of X-Men 2 where Professor Xavier freezes everybody in the mall. The people then start walking backwards and, subsequently, killing themselves, rather grotesquely I might add. The movie then moves forward to include construction workers throwing themselves off of buildings and landing with a gut-wrenching if not bone shattering crunch. Then, the movie cuts to Mark Wahlberg and thus the audience is introduced to the protagonist, if such a term can be used to label Wahlberg.

The first problem with the movie is the acting. I do not believe this to be a fault of the part of the actors. The script and screenplay are weak at best and provide minimal direction for the actors. Mark Wahlberg, in being given his first movie to truly act without one single stunt in the entire movie, does a fairly decent job. His character is shallow, yes, and it seems as if his purpose for existing is to ask questions that reveal the plot , but Wahlberg can actually pull off the type of acting direction he was given. He can be labeled as being over-the-top and perhaps even dry, but Shyamalan does make use of his dry acting talent to create some comedic moments.

Zooey Deschanel plays Wahlberg's seemingly psychotic wife. The audience is informed within 20 seconds of meeting her that she has a secret. Zooey appears as if she has some talent, but she is certainly muted in this movie. The dialogue presents her as being afraid of showing emotion, which in this case presents a problem for the movie. Given Wahlberg's dry performance, the last thing this movie needed was another dry actor, in this case actress, but this is once again a product of faulty direction and bad writing, not a product of horrible acting. Zooey portrays herself to be a capable actress and there are moments where you gain insight into her personality such as when she looks at John Leguizamo's little girl and you see the longing in her eyes to have a child of her own. The Zooey that was Wahlberg's wife just showed herself to be dry and an emotional albino.

The bright star of this film would have to be John Leguizamo. He plays a quirky math professor that is obsessed with statistics. The director wants the audience to believe that he and Wahlberg have been friends for a long time, and it is true that Wahlberg and Leguizamo work well together on screen, probably due in part to Leguizamo working with Wahlberg's brother on Spike's TV show The Kill Point. The only problem with Leguizamo's character is that he dies too early in the film to actually keep the movie alive. Leguizamo provides levity and emotion in the appropriate places and was certainly a good casting choice by Shyamalan.

The special effects are probably the shining star in this film. I have to hand it Industrial Light and Magic. The death scenes were creative and grotesque. While certainly being over the top, especially for the once-thought tasteful Shyamalan, they did provide the necessary boost of fear that kept one's pulse slightly above normal. While being the shining star, it is also this film's black hole. Some of the death scenes were downright unintentionally funny because of how over done they were. In particular, one death scene shows a man feeding himself to four lions in a zoo. While certainly being shocking, the idea in itself was laughable. The problem with the scene is not so much the idea, but the presentation of the idea. If there had been more shock to it instead of set up, then the scene would have had a heavier impact with the audience. One thing that the special effects department did correctly was the scene where the construction workers walked themselves off of the building. The sound and the following position of the bodies were realistic and made one's mouth drop at the horror of it.

Another let down in The Happening was the cinematography. The shots looked rushed and choppy. The only imagery in the film was nature which some could say is imagery enough. The predominant color of this film was green, but Shyamalan did not take the time, as he usually does, to flesh out that imagery and to unpack it like he did with The Village, Signs, and Unbreakable. There was also a notable lack of ending plot twist in this film which certainly hurt the overall effect of the film at its climax.

Overall, The Happening is a great example of a beautiful train wreck. The idea behind the horror was great; it linked one back to the methods of the great Master of Horror, but the horror was lost in the mess that was the writing and screenplay. Shyamalan did not conclude his story properly nor did he provide a notable climax, as he usually does. One can see how this film is completely experimental. Shyamalan tried new techniques that worked such as the shocking brutality (including a man running himself over with a lawn mower and a kid getting shot through the chest with a 12 gauge, all shown on-screen). This movie fails on all other fronts, though. Shyamalan, hire a writer. Please do not turn into George Lucas and ruin the best thing you have going for you: your imagination.