Movie Review: The Happening

Shyamalan Not “Happening” This Time

Don’t get me wrong. I am not one of those people who thinks M. Night Shyamalan is a geek who makes geek movies for geeks. I mean, sure, he’s a geek, but in the best possible way. He’s smart, funny, original and inventive. He shows up in his own films, which is kind of a hoot. Plus, his films always have an underlying message that makes for interesting discussion on the way home from the theater.

That said, don’t read the rest of this if you want to see the movie and be surprised. I have no compunction about spoiling this for you.

“The Happening” really let me down. Firstly, the message is delivered in a ham fisted way. Secondly, the message is laughably Politically Correct and trite. Thirdly, there was way too much gore.

The gore was the least objectionable aspect for me. I just closed my eyes after the lions ate the guy’s first arm. (Maybe that’s why I missed seeing M. Night in this movie.) My problem with the gore is that it’s a big departure from Shyamalan’s style. When you’ve seen five of his films, you know the man’s style – his brand, if you will. So, I go to see a Shyamalan sci-fi cum suspense film and see a gore picture: can’t help it, I feel like a victim of bait and switch.

The laughable Politically Correct message is that humans are destroying the earth with pollution. Now, I understand that Global Warming is the cause du jour amongst film makers. So I can forgive Mr. Shyamalan for falling in line. I think I’d have been okay with it if he’d used his usual airy-fairy-mystical approach. You know: Gaia/Mother Earth is angry with us (remember Captain Planet?) Or maybe it’s just the spirits of the trees that are fed up with us.

No, this time M. Night decided to go “scientific.” And we all know that means Evolution. Yup, the plants have evolved the ability to kill off their predators…that would be you and me, the evil polluters. Here’s the part where I actually laughed out loud: one of the TV commentators so prevalent in Shyamalan’s films says, because of the increasing threat from mankind, the trees “had no choice but to speed up their evolution” and develop human-specific toxins.

Oh really? I thought evolution took millions of years and was completely random. Now the trees are deciding, not only how to evolve, but how fast to do it. Please.

The most egregious flaw in this film is that it leaves nothing to the imagination or the intellect. Another laugh-out-loud moment for me was when Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel were fleeing the model home in which they had found brief respite. They conveniently run past a huge sign touting the virtues of the housing development. At the very top of the sign we read:
“You deserve this!”

Every story has an underlying message, even if it’s only in the world view of the author. I understand that. But if you want to entertain people, you have to tell a compelling story. If you want to enlighten, inform or harangue people, you preach a sermon. Story as sermon is a sure recipe for a flop.