The Happening Review

[Emperor]

I cut some of this because it was spoilerific and I didn't want to read it myself for once...

 

Steve here. Frosty. Whatever you want to call me. Someone I know managed to see M. Night Shyamalan's new movie “The Happening” and has sent in a review. And as a fan of M. Night’s, it pains me to report he didn’t like the movie.

 

 

I really wanted “The Happening” to be a return to form as I love "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable". While many of you didn’t like “The Village,” and a lot of people were unhappy with “Signs,” I actually like both of them. Granted, “The Village” isn’t a perfect film, but I like it. Sue me.

 

 

 

However, like all of you, I hated “Lady in the Water.” It’s not just bad…it’s terrible. It’s the only film in his catalogue I can’t stand and I think it’s a huge mess of a film. That being said, I figured he’d learned his lesson and was sharpening his knives for an assault this summer on audiences with his new movie “The Happening.” But after reading what was sent in, I’m scared he’s come off the rails and M. Night needs a serious intervention.

 

 

 

Also, just so you don’t think this is the only person who feels this way, I made a call and someone else told me pretty much the same thing that’s written below. The film doesn’t work. And as a fan of M. Night that only wishes him success, it really sucks to report this news.

 

 

 

With the release a month away, perhaps things are going to change…but if they don’t….this could be another mistake for someone I consider to be a very talented filmmaker.

 

 

 

 

Hey Steve, since I haven't seen reviews anywhere yet, thought you might be interested in my thoughts on M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening".

 

A little background: I'm one of the many that were blown away by "The Sixth Sense" back in 1999. Shyamalan's work on-screen was stylish and beautiful and was a grand return to elegant horror after the wave of cynical "Scream" imitators. I can remember sitting in a theater - before the word got out - and being hit by the twist in exactly the right way. What's more, the film isn't just its twist and repeated viewings have only made me admire "The Sixth Sense" all the more.

 

Two years later, "Unbreakable" hit and I thought it was a near-perfect follow-up. It was similarly toned without being redundant and carried a twist that validated rather than explained. If you go into "Sixth Sense" knowing there's a twist, you may very well figure it out. In "Unbreakable", the twist makes sense but there's very little foreshadowing of it or other "of course!" moments in repeat viewings.

 

"Signs" was ultimately my first experience with Shyamalan let-down, though I'll admit that he had set his own bar pretty high. I think there are moments of genius to "Signs" but, while I've grown to like it more and more, the ending is so illogical and downright silly that it ruins the movie. For the first time, the "twist" (and I hesitate to call it that; it's not, really) felt forced. Couple that with the first case of Shyamalan casting himself in a role that he shouldn't and I left the theater thinking that he made his first sub-par film but not really losing any respect for him as an artist.

 

And then "The Village" came along and had so much incredible promise that the letdown was almost tangible. Performances (from proven actors) fell apart on-screen and the twist was so tacked-on for twists' sake that the director literally had to sit down in front of the camera and explain it to the audience. At a time when Shyamalan was already starting to be mocked for his one-trick-ponyism, he offered up the silliest parody of himself he could. Why couldn't he just have made a movie about monsters in the woods? Who wouldn't have preferred that?

 

"Lady in the Water", though, felt like Shyamalan had hit rock bottom. He publicly decried Disney for not wanting his script and proceeded to make what very well be the most ego-centric film ever made. I've since become fascinated with the sheer audacity of "Lady" but that's a far, far cry from calling it a good film.

 

A year or so ago, the script for "The Happening" (then titled "The Green Effect") came across my desk and, while it inspired a mixed reaction, I really thought it was step up from both "The Village" and "Lady in the Water" and more in-tone with "Signs". A straight-forward disaster epic on a human scale, "The Happening" seemed to be, from the script, exactly what Shyamalan needed to win back an audience and redeem himself. And on the positive side, I thought he couldn't get much worse.

 

I was wrong.

 

"The Happening" is a terrible, terrible movie. I mean, it's bad on an epic scale. It's so bad that I can't possibly tell you how bad it is without understating the point or making it sound like I'm picking on the film. But let me stress: this is not pent-up Shyamalan aggression or a desire to see him fail. This is bad in a jaw-dropping "they can't really be serious, can they?" kind of way. The closest comparison I can draw is to Neil LaBute's "Wicker Man" and, like that film, the only consolation I can offer potential theater-goers is that you might want to see it just to be in on the ground floor when the film gets its ass handed back to it.

 

I can also throw out that I'm not certain if the version I saw was the final version. It certainly felt rough but compared pretty dead-on with what I remembered from the script. The score, certainly, was missing and while that can really work wonders in the final form, I can't imagine it coming close to saving "The Happening".

 

The story is relatively simple and I don't want to venture too far into spoiler territory. Picture "The Birds" without any birds, and that should give you a good idea of what Shyamalan seems to be going for. Suddenly and for seemingly no reason a neuro-toxin is released in the Northeastern United States that causes people to murder themselves in terrible ways. The effect sweeps through different towns and everyone races to escape, unsure of what's really going on. The lead, Mark Wahlberg, is a schoolteacher who is on the outs with wife Zooey Deschanel. They flee together with a few other strangers and try to figure out what has caused the deadly outbreak.

 

The most obvious fault in "The Happening" is the acting -- in particular Wahlberg's performance. I'm saying this with no hyperbole, but Wahlberg might very well give the worst performance I've ever seen in anything. He's that bad. His character is a passive aggressive high-school teacher and each line in delivered with nasally whines that sound like some strange parody. As bad as the rest of the movie is, Wahlberg is the part that the internet is going to eat alive. But is it really his fault? Wahlberg's proven himself with "I (Heart) Huckabees" and his amazing turn in "The Departed". I can't help but feel that Shyamalan -- intentionally or otherwise -- is ultimately to blame for forcing some truly awful line readings.

 

The rest of the cast is passable but nothing special. Zooey Deschanel is extremely cute but never really does anything that matters. She's very similar to a lot of female Shyamalan characters: the recent-love-that-didn't-work-out. John Leguizamo probably does the best job of maneuvering around clunky, awkward dialogue as another schoolteacher and friend to Wahlberg but he's also barely in the film and only really serves the purpose of, fairly early on, having Wahlberg and Deschanel watch after his little girl for the duration of the film.

 

Seeing a Shyamalan has become this horrifically abusive relationship where I desperately cling to the belief that if I keep loving him, he'll stop hitting me. I'm already telling myself that "The Last Airbender" will be fascinating because its an adaptation rather than an original creation. That'll help, right? Because "The Happening" just makes me want to cry.

 

 

[Emperor]

Another one, because I want to believe in this movie so bad...

 

M. Night Shyamalan is probably the most hated brilliant filmmaker in Hollywood right now. I think this has to do not so much with his films, which are hardly dismissible even if they're not one's cup of tea, but with his perceived arrogance. I mean, I get it, it's kind of obnoxious to hear a guy compare himself to all-time greats like Hitchcock, as Shyamalan did again recently when he evoked "The Birds" as well as Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to describe the constant sense of paranoia that filled "The Happening".

 

Yet, personally, that doesn't bother me, not when, as has been the case time and time again with Shyamalan, the work is actually great enough to justify such comparisons. Alas, "The Happening", while not without qualities, doesn't live up to expectations, at least not after this first viewing.

 

The movie does open promisingly, though. On a seemingly ordinary summer day in Central Park, all passers-by are suddenly struck by a mysterious ailment: disorientation, paralysis, suicidal instincts... In mere moments, the ground is covered with corpses and before long, the phenomenon spreads to the rest of New York, then all through the East Coast.

 

So far, so good. Like all post-9/11 disaster flicks, "The Happening" evokes the events of that fateful day, with panic overtaking people and everyone assuming that terrorists are behind the attacks. But right away, Shyamalan insinuates that the cause of these events is nature itself. What if our environment, in response to all the abuse perpetrated against it, decided to get rid of the nuisance that is humanity? What follows could be described as an ecological thriller but, fear not, there are no Steven Seagal at the end of "On Deadly Ground"-style message; the ramifications are implied rather than explicit.

 

As is always the case with Shyamalan, even though the stakes are monumental, the tone is intimist. The crisis is shown almost entirely from the point of view of Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), who happen to be experiencing some marital difficulties when all hell breaks loose. As such, "The Happening" is as much about their attempts to reconnect as it is about the survival of mankind.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing which holds the film back from the heights reached before by Shyamalan is the casting of Marky Mark. He's not a bad actor per se but, apart from his surprisingly fierce turn in "The Departed", he generally comes off a bit bland and dim. That worked in "Boogie Nights", as that was what the character of Dirk Diggler called for, but a Shyamalan protagonist needs to be more soulful. To be fair, Wahlberg does have his moments here, but his performance pales in comparison with those of Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable", Mel Gibson in "Signs", Joaquin Phoenix in "The Village" and Paul Giamatti in "Lady in the Water".

 

On the other hand, Zooey Deschanel is perfectly lovely and touching in the other lead, and she manages to elevate Wahlberg's game in their key scenes together, so all's not lost. John Leguizamo also fares well as a friend of the couple, as does little Ashlyn Sanchez as his daughter. I also liked all the wonderfully colourful supporting players (the hotdog-loving hippie, the batshit crazy old lady, etc.) and, in a more general way, the numerous instances of comic relief, which suggest that Shyamalan doesn't take himself quite as seriously as his detractors believe.

 

The other reason why "The Happening" isn't on the level of Shyamalan's best is that it's just not that scary or intense. Aside from the opening, there are a few other horrifying scenes, but none are as riveting as the invasion of the farmhouse in "Signs", for instance. Still, even minor Shyamalan remains well worth seeing.

[Justen Diablos]

For the record I hated the Sixth Sense, and wish M Knight Shamymamgylain nothing but ill.

 

actually that's not true, but I don't see why he's such a renowned filmaker.  I'll give you sixth sense, and maybe even signs, because people (who aren't me) enjoyed those movies.  But does two movies really an amazing director make?  If we judged music by those standards Milli-Vanilli and Debbie Gibson would be in the hall of fame.

 

And The Happening had a nice preview, and I'm actually down for watching it. (when it comes out on video)

 

JD,

Never Failed the Fourth Grade

[Paityr]

I still have hope that this one will be good. Maybe that's why I have flat-out refused to see Lady in the Water, since I don't want it to tarnish my image of M. Night as a brilliant filmmaker.

 

Well, going to a movie with low expectations can sometimes yield pleasant surprises, right?

[Emperor]

Unbreakable is what sealed the deal for me on loving him.

[SinisterDeath]

I still haven't seen lady in the water, not because of the reviews, but because I forgot that it existed... I think I'm going to netflix it actually.

Unlike alot of people, I don't trust reviews, there are just so many reasons why someone could give a good/bad review. But since I've just heard so much bad stuff about lady in the water, the REAL question is, Is the film SO bad, that going in expecting dirt, does it still disapoint even further? If it can, I realy would have to give M.Night a standing obatin for possibly creating the one film in existance, that did the opposite of the rare 'gone in expecting gold, and got platinum', but in his case, gone in expecting dirt and got shit. ;)

[Guest Far Dareis Mai]

I'm disappointed by these reviews, as I have enjoyed all of his movies thus far. Yes, even Lady in the Water....even though I must say that the first time I watched it I didn't like it much, but after watching it a second time, I caught some nuances that I found I enjoyed. But if you compare his movies to each other, each one does become a little more disappointing. I think if you just take them by themselves, they aren't so bad. I've sure seen worse in that genre. So I'm going to reserve judgement until after I've seen it myself, since I tend to like movies that others don't--and vice versa. :D

[Emperor]

I have watched every movie Night has been involved in... yes... even Stuart Little.  I liked Signs much more than most people because I appreciate the way to movie moved.  I would have been more happy if we never saw an Alien, but whatever.  It really reminded me of Jaws in that he built up suspense.  Sure the Aliens came to a planet filled with Water.  And Jaws was a 20 foot shark that really had a hankering for a boat full of two people. 

 

Unbreakable remains one of my top movies, even over Sixth Sense.  Yeah yeah... you want a spiderman swinging from the rooftops and in tights... but this one was well put together and built on itself perfectly.  You watch it again and realize the symbolism blows you away.

 

Lady in the Water wasn't as good as previous Night films, but was not a bad movie on its own.  It did not deserve the Razzie for Worst Director but oh well. 

 

Here is another bad review (warning slight plot spoilers.. well more of a synopsis):

 

 

 

For a movie called ``The Happening,'' not much happens.

 

M. Night Shyamalan effectively delivers the usual broody air of foreboding that has been a trademark of his hits (``The Sixth Sense'' and ``Signs'') and misses (``Lady in the Water'' and ``Unbreakable'').

 

And this fear-mongering story of an airborne toxin that causes victims to snuff themselves in nasty ways - shoving hairpins into their throats, hurling themselves en masse off a high rise, the like - induces plenty of seat-squirming. The shock value wears off quickly, though, and writer-director Shyamalan strands us (along with Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) in an ultimately boring cautionary tale with an infantile eco-message.

 

Thankfully, Shyamalan's not trying to pull great surprises anymore. He sneaked up on us brilliantly with an ending to ``The Sixth Sense'' that made just about everyone want to see it again.

 

Since then, his attempts to startle mostly have been flimsy gimmicks, though the end to ``The Village,'' while not terribly surprising, packed provocative notions about creating your own monsters while trying to shield yourself from the horrors of the world at large.

 

In ``The Happening,'' those horrors land abruptly and mysteriously as crowds in New York's Central Park become disoriented one morning, then start killing themselves savagely. The phenomena spreads through Manhattan, then to Philadelphia, Boston and other cities, trickling down to smaller and smaller Northeast towns, villages and pockets of people.

 

By way of lame explanation, a TV news talking head babbles some scientific nonsense about a substance that blocks the brain's self-preservation neurotransmitters.

 

At first, it's assumed this is a terrorist attack. But as the day wears on, observers realize - none too plausibly, given the skimpy anecdotal evidence and utter lack of empirical validation - that our green friends in the plant world are the source of some deadly toxin.

 

Philly science teacher Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) and wife Alma (Deschanel) flee the city by train along with his buddy Julian (John Leguizamo) and his 8-year-old daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).

 

Stranded in rural Pennsylvania, Julian heads off to search for his missing wife, leaving his daughter in the care of Elliot and Alma, who join other survivors rushing through the boondocks to stay ahead of the toxin.

 

From here, ``The Happening'' deflates from its grisly, early promise to repetitive images of people running through fields, the unlucky ones suddenly stopping, then searching about for convenient ways to do themselves in.

 

By the time a guy cranks up a giant lawnmower and lies down in front of it, Shyamalan's images of mass suicide have grown tiresome.

 

There's little room for Wahlberg and Deschanel to do more than react in terror, and both are rather bland even at that. A feeble marital rift Shyamalan tosses in does nothing to spice up the drama.

 

Gradually, ``The Happening'' turns weird for the sake of turning weird as Elliot and Alma take refuge with a crazy old woman (Betty Buckley, the step-mom from ``Eight Is Enough'' - remember her?).

 

Shyamalan manages to keep in check the overactive ego that led him to take on tiny roles a la an Alfred Hitchcock walk-on in some movies - and the all-out narcissism he displayed by casting himself as a writer whose book will be the basis of humanity's salvation in ``Lady in the Water.''

 

He does slip himself into ``The Happening,'' though, providing the phone voice of a man with whom Alma has a flirtation.

 

The movie's vague, shame-on-us finger-pointing would have been tepid in the 1960s and '70s, when Hollywood condemned our rapacious species with more fun and interesting future-shock stories such as ``Planet of the Apes'' and ``Silent Running.''

 

Shyamalan states that the idea for ``The Happening'' - the entire structure and the characters - came to him in an instant as he drove through rural New Jersey and was hit by the thought, ``What if nature one day turned on us?''

 

Fine, nice start. But all Shyamalan ever came up with is a start, an intriguing impetus for a story that ultimately goes nowhere and says nothing.

 

``The Happening,'' a 20th Century Fox release, is rated R for violent and disturbing images. Running time: 91 minutes. Two stars out of four.

 

 

 

 

[Samuraiflip05]

I have found, in my experiences, that if the big reviewers call a movie "crap" I tend to enjoy it quite a bit.  I own Signs and the Village, I enjoyed Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, Lady in the Water was odd and I felt poorly guided to the conclusion.  I will give this the same chance I gave the others...a rental.