Review: The Happening (2008)

[Homer Yen]

Something "Happening" But Not Sure What
by Homer Yen
(c) 2008

Weird things are happening in "The Happening".  That's expected since
the film was penned by the same person who brought us the clever "The
Sixth Sense".  M. Night Shyamalan has always presented films that
harbor strange and unexpected ideas that make you scratch your chin
and go "hmmm."  This one is no different.

"The Happening" is a thriller about a family on the run from a natural
crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.  There is a
chilling build-up for the first 20 minutes of the film as some kind of
unexplained phenomenon begins to envelop the greater Eastern Seaboard.
 People begin to lose their senses, and they start to do things that
ultimately lead to their deaths.  There are unsettling-but-brilliant
examples such as what happens to construction workers working atop a
high-rise.  There are more gruesome examples such as an incident at
the city zoo.  If you have a morbid fascination regarding different
ways people wind up killing themselves, then you'll find the
presentation to be chock-full-of-ideas.  But, this is not the kind of
creepy-cool storytelling along the lines of Shyamalan's breakout film,
"The Sixth Sense".  It's more along the lines of "War of the Worlds"
in which some kind of unknown enemy wreaks havoc upon an unsuspecting
and unprepared society.

With regards to Shyamalan's oeuvre of work, this is the first to have
an "R" rating.  And that's too bad because much of the violence didn't
seem necessary because the onset of this catastrophe is unsettling
unto itself.  The portent of really-bad-things-about-to-happen is
represented by the sudden rustling of the leaves and a strange wind
that mysteriously emerges.  Kudos go to the great cinematography,
which ably captures the ominous feel of the wind's weight upon the
foliage.  Is this some kind of terrorist attack?  Is it a side effect
of global warming?  Is it some weird act of nature?  It's almost like
asking an auto mechanic what makes that disturbing clunking sound when
you drive.  The mechanic may or may not know.  But the point is that
when you hear that funny sound when you drive, the car is very
dangerous to others.

The story centers on a couple (Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) and
a child (Ashlyn Sanchez) that they need to take care of.  The odd
thing about the film is that while these three barely manage to stay
together, the movie's texture does not.  The film suffers from
multiple personality disorder.  There didn't seem to be a theme that
cohesively held it together.  In one scene, a separate group of people
succumb to this phenomenon.  In another scene, they encounter
shotgun-wielding lunatics.  In another, the three come upon a
traumatized old woman.  It's one movie title with three separate and
distinct acts.

Though I wasn't impressed with how the film was strung together, I did
like Mark Wahlberg's insouciance and his every-man appeal. I liked the
director's ability to turn simple things like a model home or a meadow
or even a pastoral town into settings that are sinister.  And, the
premise behind what caused this catastrophe and the message in the
film gives me pause.  I'm always interested in how Shyamalan thinks.
Sure, I would've enjoyed it more if it did away with the
self-inflicted carnage and kept it to a PG-13 rating.  But, after all,
it's the thought that counts.

Grade:	C+

S:	0 out of 3
L:	0 out of 3
V:	3 out of 3