The Happening

The Happening (Rated R)

Running time: 1 hr 31 mins

Cast:

Mark Wahlberg
Zooey Deschanel
John Leguizamo

Critical consensus (www.rottentomatoes.com):

** out of *****

My consensus:

*1/2 out of *****




The premise: A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.

My review: I have always been an avid fan of M. Night Shymalan. His first three films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs) are fantastic and original films that surprised the film watching nation. He had become a refreshing addition to the movie industry. Then he made The Village was critically bombed, The Lady in the Water which received mixed reviews, and now we have The Happening. Early screenings and reviews were looking as if The Happening would be the worst reviewed motion picture in the past few years. Things have recently been looking up for the film though, as more reviews trickle out.

I am part of the crowd that hated this film. Which disappoints me, because M. Night is going down hill at a rapid pace. I want to start with the good, because it exists in this film. The camera work is beautiful, and the landscape scenes are wonderful.The premise we have is very, very cool and I think, really original. The fact that we as humans are destroying the Earth and now the Earth is retaliating (according to this movie). Plants let off these defensive chemicals to kill their prey, are now releasing them in grand effect to kill humans off (perhaps now their greatest enemy). These things they release enter our bodies, and turn our brains to mush, and we go nuts and kill ourselves in some pretty awful ways (death by lawnmower anyone?) Personally, I think this idea for a supernatural thriller is a really good one. It just doesn't work for a couple reasons.

The screenplay is way off kilter. The dialog these characters are forced to say is so cheesy you would think a class of fifth graders wrote this movie. The writing works vaguely with this great premise but doesn't pull out all the stops, its just weak. The acting is some of the worst of the year. Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) speaks all his lines with this high pitched tone where almost every thing he says sounds like a question. He sounded like a child yelling at his parents as to why he's in trouble...if that explains it all. It was weird, he's usually pretty good. Zooey Deschanel is so, so, SO awful here. I don't even know if she was acting. I honestly felt like she was on drugs while filming this movie. She was bad...REAL bad. John Leguizamo was the only bright spot here, but of course, his performance was short lived. Pun intended. The creepy old lady in the end was just random and well...creepy. No other words to really describe it.

I just felt like not much really happened in this movie by the end of it. It was pretty boring and not much of a "thriller". Also I'd like to point out that M. Night Shymalan has had some form of physical role in all his movies (more prominently in Lady in the Water where he was a central character), but for some reason, according to the credits, he played the role of Joey...a man we never seen, and only here one or two words from him over a cell phone. Maybe he knew this movie was going to be bad and didn't want to put himself in it to be scrutinized even more. I don't know...I may never know.