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2008
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THE
HAPPENING
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STARRING:MARK
WAHLBERG,ZOOEY DESCHANEL,JOHN LEGUIZAMO,ASHLYN SANCHEZ,BETTY BUCKLEY
WRITTEN
BY M.NIGHT SHYAMALAN
PRODUCED
BY BARRY MENDEL, SAM MERCER & M.NIGHT SHYAMALAN
DIRECTED
BY M.NIGHT SHYAMALAN
GENRE:MYSTERY/SCIENCE
FICTION/THRILLER
RATED:AUSTRALIA:MA/UK:15/USA:R
RUNNING
TIME:91 MIN
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The
Happening has been blasted as M. Night Shyamlan's failed attempt
at a comeback film, but it is not as bad as most critics suggest.
One thing is for sure: it is a vast improvement over Lady in
the Water.
The most gruesome of Shyamalan's pictures opens with a chilling sequence
in New York City's Central Park as its various inhabitants begin to
commit suicide; one woman stabs her self in the neck with her hairpin;
construction workers jump off buildings like confetti falling from
the sky.
At first authorities believe it is a terrorist attack involving chemical
weapons, and several states in America's east side are evacuated.
Among them is Philadelphia, where high school science teacher Elliot
(Mark Wahlberg), along with his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and fellow
maths teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) along with his daughter Jess
(Ashlyn Sanchez) leave for the country.
Together they travel through America trying to keep ahead of whatever
is making people kill themselves, as others around them succumb to
the "infection". In turn the film morphs into a cross between
the War
of the World's and the daddy of sci-fi paranoid
thrillers Invasion
of the Body Snatchers. However, this time there
is no extraterrestrial threat, but an environmental one. An environment
killer thriller if you will.
There are several good points. Wahlberg proves to be a sufficient
leading man in a role far removed from his usual on screen persona,
with his somewhat whiny tone and naivety reminding me of his role
as Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights; Zooey Deschanel is
good (although her bug eye look can get annoying), and Leguizamo seems
to be creating a career of being the best thing in poor / mediocre
movies (Love
in the Time of Cholera, Spawn etc)
James Newton Howard's provides a biting score which kept me on my
feet, and Tak Fujimoto's photography is crisp. The real strength of
this film, however, lies within its interesting concept of the environment
- particularly plant life - laying waste to huge pockets of human
civilization. It brings up many pressing issues concerning our world
today; global warming, over population, pollution.
Yet while The Happening proves Shyamalan is an excellent ideas
man, his (dis)ability to take simple, interesting concepts and stretch
them out into paper thin, often complicated plots has unfortunately
become more of a trademark for the once promising writer/director
than his astute writing and directorial skills.
Such is the case here. After a gripping set up the plot becomes problematic,
as the films characters throw out wild and vague observations about
what is exactly "happening", centres them as absolute fact,
and then blows them off under the guise of "nature can never
be explained". This may be true in real life, but within a 90
min film it becomes a tedious exercise of perseverance on the viewer's
part to not walk out as its tendency to over guess itself creates
a messy web of confusion at its conclusion. Perhaps it would have
worked much better if the observations were left to the audience.
So in all I found this film not to be the disaster everyone has made
it out to be. But it sure as hell does not meet the expectations placed
on it either, and is another bump in the case of legendary status
far too quickly bestowed upon the head of its filmmaker. Strangely
enough though, I (along with others) have faith that he will once
again match the bar he established in his first film (The Sixth
Sense). Perhaps that is a phenomenon in itself. |
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