The Happening Review

The three main actors, realising all too late what they got themselves into.

Sometimes, a films title can be used as a kind of reference to the quality of the product. It usually gives some kind of sense to what the film is about etc, or is a clever reference to something that happens throughout the film. Sometimes outright bad names can make for good films, case in point Superbad and the upcomming Pineapple Express. Ridiculous names for sure, but in bringing down your perceived standards of what the film will be like they often have cause to surprise you in a positive way. Not so with 'The Happening', which M. Night Shyamalan wrote, directed and produced.

Lets go back a little ways into the history of Shyamalan. His first major success, The Sixth Sense, was a pretty good film provided you didn't have the plot spoiled for you. It was a haunting thriller type story with lots of suspence and a nice twist at the end. Furthermore, Shyamalan's later films were also fairly good - Unbreakable, Signs and The Village. Lady in the Water is the only one I haven't seen, but if its anything like The Happening as other reviews have suggested, I will be staying well clear of watching it. Something, somewhere went horribly wrong with Shyamalan. I'm guessing it was a mixture of things. He ran out of creative juice perhaps. Perhaps with the success he has achieved so far, he is blind to anything poor or bad he is creating. I remember reading an interview with the man on how the film Lady in the Water bombed, and what he planned to do in the future. He promised a return to his true-to-form original, successful ideas. His next project would once again ring true just like his first successes. Oh boy, things sure didn't pan out as he planned.

Anyway on with the actual review. The basic surmise is as follows: Elliot, played by Mark Wahlberg, is a school teacher somewhere on the Eastern Coast of the United States. He is currently involved with Alma, played by Zooey Deschanel of 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' fame. His best friend is a stereotypical New York type character, Julian, played by John Leguizamo, who for some reason has an anger problem whenever Alma is around. The hook of the film starts out with people randomly killing themselves for some reason. After this we move onto news reports of an apparent terroist attack on the East Coast, which causes everyone into a frenzy and they evacuate the cities onto trains.

Shyamalan has used ghosts, aliens, superhero type characters and evil humans in the past to drive his films, but his choice in The Happening is quite laughable. Apparently, it is the plants that are causing people to kill themselves somehow. The moments of suspence are shown by rustling trees and grass, and Oh My God We're going to die! moments. According to the news report, the plants are releasing a toxin because they are under threat by humankind. This toxin changes the brain chemistry to stop the protective instincts of humans. Somehow, this makes humans find means to kill themselves. The whole premise is insanely ridiculous. While such a toxin could take away protective insticts, possibly causing some accidental deaths, its not going to make people find ways to kill themselves. That interferes with free will and logical sense.

Furthermore, both the acting and dialogue in this film is just goddamn awful. I don't think its the actual actorss faults for acting so badly, but rather the direction and the horrible script they had to work from. I'll provide some examples of the dialogue: Alma: [watching news report about the toxin] It makes you kill yourself. Just when you thought there couldn't be any more evil that can be invented. Another goody by Alma: We're so much the same, Jess. I don't like to show my emotions either. Elliot: If we're going to die, I want you to know something. I was in the pharmacy a while ago. There was a really good-looking pharmacist behind the counter. Really good-looking. I went up and asked her where the cough syrup was. I didn't even have a cough, and I almost bought it. I'm talking about a completely superfluous bottle of cough syrup, which costs like six bucks. The last quote comes in rebuttal of their relationships apparent crisis, because Alma had dessert with someone she worked with. You can kind of see from the stupid dialogue just how badly the movie played out. Most parts seemed too stupid to be believable, with a common doubt held in the mind as to whether it was supposed to be funny or not.

One of the only redeeming features of the film was when they stumbled across a house in the middle of nowhere, inhabited by a crazy old lady who was very paranoid about sharing her house, afraid that Elliot and Alma were plotting to kill her and steal all her things. She even goes as far as putting a fake doll of herself in her bed and waiting for Elliot to inspect it when hes trying to find her. Insane, but funny.

I don't know if I have encountered a film quite as completely bad as The Happening. From the actings to the dialogue to the overall plot, no other film matches quite the way this one does. I hope this puts the final nails in Shymalan's coffin, because although I once had faith in the man, this faith has been completely and utterly taken from me. Its almost bad enough to make for a funny viewing, but the implied seriousness of the film really detracts from the final product. Usually, a film will either be funny because it is funny, or funny because it isn't meant to be funny in the slightest. With The Happening we are kind of stuck in the middle, halfway between seriousness and comedy, a kind of no mans land. Being this way, it makes the film less enjoyable as you are never really sure if Shyamalan is trying to crack a few jokes or if he's being completely serious with comedic overtones.

I know for certain that this film is going to bomb, and know this with gratitude. Having seen it on opening night, witnessing how the theatre didn't fill up, and listening to the overwhelming majority of negative comments affirms the fact this film with not do well financially. Nor should it. So hear this, by word of mouth, a word of wisdom, not to ever put yourself through the hell of watching this horrible movie. Let us never speak of its name again...