The Happening
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Reviewed by Annie Lynn White
So I went to see The Happening.
It's a zombie movie with no zombies. You get snippets of the traditionally useless TV and radio broadcasts that cast little light on the situation other than to point out that Philadelphia, Boston and Princeton have been affected. The lack of zombies means that there is no back story on where said zombies originated. This element is therefore replaced with "why is this happening?" which becomes clear rather early on through generously-placed foreshadowing that screams “This is going to be important later on!" and by the time "later on" has come, you already know to what earlier line they will refer.
As with any zombie movie, this one's pretty par for the course. Weird shit happens, slowly at first, and soon everyone figures out that some kind of apocalypse has commenced. You meet a couple characters you only marginally care about, some other characters are kind of obnoxious, but it's okay because they get little screen time (spoiler alert: they die). A precocious child is separated from a parent she'll never see again, but she doesn’t know it at the time, and she seems to instantly assimilate into a new family structure where before no child existed. You watch the "interesting" characters--by which I mean you watch the characters played by faces you know from other movies--survive with maybe a clever idea here or there, but by and large little to no plot development. Director M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for his lack of actual plot and, as usual, substitutes ample suspense.
What is so different from other Shyamalan films is this is his first trek in to R-rated territory, which leads to how graphically the deaths are portrayed. It's almost like a Troma film, except with enough of a budget to depict accurate and grisly details. The shock adds to the suspense in a crescendo of mediocrity. The images aren't cheesy, but feel a little too dramatic to fit in well with the subtleties of the film that are surprisingly successful.
While the film is far from perfect, nobody can begrudge Shyamalan his cinematography, and of course this is no exception. What struck me most profoundly, however, was how Mark Wahlberg continues his streak of believable performances that manage to be sincere and likeable. While the emotional acting of his character was less-than-demanding, the dialogue required a careful tongue to live up to its potential. It was refreshing to watch a film with plenty of action that wasn't littered with trite catchphrases and adding to that refreshment was a delivery that was not even once flat. You really like Wahlberg, you look to see how he'll react to each pitfall, and you want to hear him talk about what's going on some more. On the other hand, because you like him so much, you're likely to recognize the character's wife as whiny and timidly obnoxious and, like, oh-my-god-he-could-do-so-much-better.
Even though the trailer contains most of the interesting footage you’ll see in this film, it’s still grandiose enough a spectacle to warrant a visit to your theatre if, say, you have nothing better to do on a Tuesday night. If you wait til it’s on DVD, however, I’d recommend adding it to your Netflix queue and against rushing out to Best Buy the night it’s out.
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