Review: The Happening

The Happening

Opening Date: 06/13/2008

STUDIO: Fox

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge

We’ve sensed it. We’ve seen the signs. Now… it’s happening.

Opening Statement

The only thing happening here is a case study on “How to destroy a promising directorial career.”

Facts of the Case
Something strange is happening in NYC. The media claims it’s terrorists using undetectable neurotoxins to induce mass suicide. But similar incidents are being reported up and down the East Coast in rapid succession. Newlyweds Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Alma (Zooey Deschanel) are experiencing relationship problems and use the impetus of the event to get out of Philly and stay with friends in the country. But when their train is stopped in the middle of nowhere, they and their fellow passengers are left stranded, with an unknown enemy closing in. But how do you fight or flee from something when you don’t know what it is? Conspiracy theorists believe its a government, biochemical weapons program accident. But what if it was something else together — something so far fetched no one would ever believe it?

The Evidence

I don’t think we’ve ever experienced this before; the unraveling of a talent so promising it defies explanation. M. Night Shyamalan wowed audiences and critics alike with his sophomore effort, The Sixth Sense. His third film, the superhero adventure Unbreakable, was a bit of a letdown, but he came back strong with the invasion thriller Signs. When The Village crumbled and Lady in the Water tanked, Hollywood began to wonder if this was a run of bad luck, or if his early work was just a fluke. After enduring The Happening, it’s safe to say the man has lost whatever it was he had.

The premise is not half bad — an unsuspecting populace attacked by an unseen enemy, leaving them nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It’s almost Hitchockian and composer James Newton Howard’s homage to Bernard Herrmann draws us right in. Sadly, that perception holds our attention for about 10 minutes before the wheels come off. Shyamalan may have set out to create a profound social comment on environmental stewardship, but it’s all smoke and no fire, never delving deep enough into the far reaching ramifications of what’s occurring nor the ultimate change humanity must make to overcome its ignorant ways. Instead we have a “green” version of Night of the Living Dead meets The Invisible Man.

This is a shockingly bad film. From the dialogue and performances, to the individual plot points and the story’s denouement, Shyamalan has hit rock bottom. This one note message picture would be best served as a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode, in the hands of someone who actually knew what to do with it. There’s about 20 minutes of real meat to the tale, with 71 minutes of visual padding. If you love long shots of tall grass and trees blowing in the wind, there is plenty for you to enjoy. For everyone else, we’re stuck with some of the most embarrassing acting to come out of a major studio picture in quite some time.

The ridiculous attempt at portraying any authentic fear-based emotion takes you right out of the film. Long vacant stares, women screaming, children crying, people running for their lives — it’s so bad it’s impossible to believe any of it. Did the creative team not watch the dailies? Was all the good footage stolen or lost in some tragic fire, leaving the editors to piece together only what appears on screen? It’s mind blowing. How does someone make Zooey Deschanel look like an actress doing bad community theatre? And what in god’s name is Betty Buckley doing playing an off the grid and off her rocker old lady? For a split second, you almost believe she may be responsible for the story’s ultimate evil. But even that would have been too interesting a choice for this film.

The worst offense of all is that Shyamalan attempts to cover these gaping creative holes by distracting us with scenes of people committing suicide in horrifying and unintentionally hilarious ways (e.g. Man in the tiger pit). This isn’t storytelling; it’s bad performance art inspired by Faces of Death.

Even Shyamalan’s infusion of humor into what should have been a tension-filled story falls flat. We have crazy plant guy and his wife extolling the virtues of hot dogs; Barney Fife-like junior military officers trying to provide a voice of calm reassurance; and what amounts to the two smart ass kids from Return of the Swamp Thing aged to teens, supplying Elliot with relationship advice and taking on paranoid locals in true Rambo fashion. Somebody give this guy a copy of Blake Synder’s Save the Cat.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The two redeeming qualities of The Happening are Mark Wahlberg — the only effective piece in this obtuse puzzle, and even he stumbles at times — and John Leguizamo, who bails halfway through the picture. That’s it. There’s nothing else to recommend.

Closing Statement

Save your money. The Happening is not worth seeing on the big screen, and may not even be worth a rental when it comes to DVD. As the man sitting across the aisle from me proclaimed when the lights came up, “Man, that was crap!”

The Verdict

Move along. There’s nothing to see here.

Score: 2/10

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