‘The Happening’: M. Night
seems lost in the dark

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

When much of America thinks that you hit your career peak with your first major film, it has to be pretty difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas.
The Sixth Sense set the bar high for writer-director-producer and sometime actor M. Night Shyamalan, but no movie has won him as much critical or fan acclaim since. His lowest point seemingly came two years ago with the horrendous Lady in the Water.
Thankfully, The Happening is nowhere near as bad as Lady in the Water. Unfortunately, it’s not even close to being as good as The Sixth Sense.
With Shyamalan’s movies, the audience has come to expect creepy, eerie and a twist ending. The Happening tries creepy and eerie, but misses the mark. The ending leaves you wishing for more, but not in a good way.
The Happening begins with promise, as people in New York City’s Central Park randomly start committing suicide, but soon the movie becomes a boring letdown with no redemption (i.e. a great twist) at the end.
After the mass deaths in NYC, which initially are blamed on terrorism, the deaths began spreading all along the Northeast, including Philadelphia. When news of the attacks hits Philadelphia, high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) heads out of town with wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and co-worker Julian (John Leguizamo) and his young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). When the train they’re on loses connection with “everyone” somewhere in western Pennsylvania, Julian decides to go find his wife in Princeton and asks Elliot and Alma to look after Jess.
By now, the killings are thought to be caused by plants as an act of nature. The deaths begin spreading from the large cities to rural areas and claim people in groups. Elliot, Alma and Jess do their best to avoid nature’s fury and spend much of the movie running through fields and watching people die gruesomely.
The Happening is Shyamalan’s first R-rated film, which gave the studio something to promote, but didn’t add anything to the quality of the film. Basically, the R-rating allowed Shyamalan to come up with gory and somewhat tasteless ways to kill people.
It has been reported that Shyamalan wrote the character of Elliot with Wahlberg in mind, but I just don’t understand that reasoning. After seeing Wahlberg in more recent “tough guy” roles in We Own the Night, Shooter, The Departed and even Invincible to some extent, he came off completely unbelievable as a sweater-vest-wearing science teacher talking about neurotoxins in The Happening.
Deschanel is fine, albeit boring, as the wife who confesses to a minor indiscretion when death seems to loom.
At best, The Happening is an underwhelming undertaking by this Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. Hollywood’s big on second chances, but after The Village disappointed and Lady in the Water tanked, I don’t how many more chances Shyamalan has to make another great movie.
It’s too bad this Philly filmmaker’s next great movie didn’t happen with The Happening.
Movie Grade: C