The Happening
2008
*½
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Ashlyn Sanchez, Spencer Breslin, Robert Bailey, Jr., Frank Collison
M. Night Shyamalan's disaster film has unsettling first five minutes, as a mysterious airborne neurotoxin makes people commit suicide in masses in the eastern seaboard. Following the shock start, a science teacher and his neurotic wife flee Philadelphia, but will they be safe anywhere? Who or what is behind these attacks? Shyamalan's reveal comes uncharacteristically early, but, oh boy, is it a silly one. Although the running time is nicely short, the screenplay is cluttered with side plots which serve no purpose. The wife frets about an innocent date she had with another man. The husband doesn't care one bit, so why should we? An old lady lives cut off from the world. She's creepy, unbalanced, and totally irrelevant to the story. The parts that matter, like the inexplicable wind that spreads the toxin are filed under things that cannot be explained. The plot machinery creaks when Shyamalan uses his exposition-heavy dialogue purely to set up the upcoming scenes. It is not a surprise that the performances are at par with the script. Mark Wahlberg acts with his frown lines, Deschanel with her wide eyes. The film is never exactly dull, I must admit, but it is unforgivably stupid and poorly conceived.
