"The Happening" movie review (Trifecta part II)

M. Night Shyamalan's latest cinematic endeavor (and first R-rated feature) is the environmental thriller, The Happening (R). Mark Walburg stars as a Philadelphia science teacher who, along with his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and his friends (John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez), try to escape from an unknown airborne virus that causes people to kill themselves.

Ryan: Since the tremendous breakthrough (both critical and commercial) that was The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan has directed five feature films. There's no doubt about it, The Happening is the worst of the lot. Even worse, his filmography has gotten progressively inferior after the success of Signs. The Village showed a lot of promise but couldn't quite deliver the knock out blow and Lady in Water seemed like an all right film when it was released but looking back on it, it has failed to resonate in any lasting manner. Knowing what I know now, I would have gladly sat through those two films again than to sit through the cinematic fiasco that is The Happening.

Andy: It’s really pretty impressive that a director who clearly has a great deal of talent could miss so completely on a movie. The basic premise and approach of the movie seems good. Something mysterious is causing people to die in huge numbers, and we see the reaction of a group of normal people who are trying to come to terms with what is happening. It is something almost everyone can relate to in the post 9/11 world. The problem is that about thirty minutes into the movie, it starts to seem really dumb for some reason.

Ryan: A disheartening aspect of the film is that it started off on the right track with an interesting premise. There's no question that Shyamalan can establish mood and create thrills with a scene. The beginning of the movie showcases this. Inexplicably, about midway through the it, the movie just becomes bland and somewhat silly at times. It's almost like Shyamalan didn't know how to end the movie or for that matter have a climax to the film. For a director known for his clever endings, The Happening has one of the most anti-climatic finales that one will ever see.

Andy: A major reason this movie doesn’t work is that the toxin(?) causes people to take their own life in elaborate ways. Instead of simply losing the will to live, people go into a trance and kill themselves, sometimes by elaborate means. This not only takes away from the believability of The Happening, it also makes certain scenes kind of amusing when they are supposed to be terrifying, and that is a bad thing for a movie that is trying to be a thriller.

Ryan: Shyamalan—here lately—has taken a beating from critics. Some is fair, but a lot of it is not. Even in this column we have defended Shyamalan's artistic merit has a director. While I still respect him as a filmmaker there's no question that he's in a funk. Now I'm not going to pretend that I know how to get him back on track. If I knew the answer to that I would be in Hollywood and not Greensburg. My point is this—Shyamalan is certainly not the first talented director to be in a creative slump (nor will he be the last). I think he just needs to get back to making movies without trying to please everybody because that notion is impossible.

Andy: It seems that Shyamalan continues to have intriguing movie ideas, but the execution is way off. In this film he even managed to make Mark Whalberg and Zooey Deschanel, both of whom I love as actors, look pretty silly and ineffective. That alone is impressively bad. I would like to see Shyamalan either produce a movie or two without writing it, or perhaps direct something he didn’t write. His do-it-all mentality has not has failed consistently enough now, that I will likely avoid his next movie.

The Happening is intriguing at times, but inexplicably falls apart. Final grade: D+.