The Happening

            The Happening is the kind of film that we seem to see every summer.  An end of the world film, where some kind of threat endangers the world as we know it.  Sometimes you get something good like War of the Worlds and sometimes you get something horrible like the Day After Tomorrow.   The Happening is a film that is not the best of its kind and is probably one of the worst films of the year.

            What is really flawed with this film is that is just plainly and simply hits lots of false notes and has moments that just do not work.  It is a film of constantly silly moments and unbelievable events.  The film itself has a silly enough story, but many plots of these films have silly plots.  What makes the difference is the delivery.  The delivery here is less than impressive and the twists in the films here are just ridicules.  The story itself revolves a large out break of mass suicides in New York City and the chaos soon spreads west.  In the city people are running of roofs, stabbing themselves and multiply other violent and silly ways. 

Trying to escape the chaos is a science teacher in Philadelphia played by Mark Wahlberg and his wife Zooey Deschanel.  The film follows their struggles from there as they run for their lives.  They travel across the countryside and find nothing but more trouble, but of course there would not be film if they didn’t.  The film follows their struggle to survive and it just goes down hill from there.

What’s wrong here is just how silly the set up and execution of the film is.  It is a film that has a dull build up and a terrible pay off.  It is a film that is very anti climatic, with really nothing to get excited about.  I wish I could tell all of you the supposed twist here but I am a firm believer in not revealing endings of films.  Let me tell you this one is a train wreck and is on the level with the horrible The Village.  When the twist of this film is revealed it just opens up more question and doubt in the films credibility.  On top of it all, the end is really very preachy and silly.  If you bore me, like this film did, then don’t preach to me.

M. Night Shyamalan has really fallen from grace with me here.  With this film and the unspeakably bad The Village and the disappointing Lady in the Water, Shyamalan has been on a loosing streak.  This is a really rough patch and he seems to have lost his way.  In his last three films he seems to be more interested in the twists and plot devices of the films then the actual films themselves.  How can the man who made such exceptional films like The Six Sense, Unbreakable and Signs make this mess?  I think he still has good films in him but he needs to stay away from plot gimmicks and rely more on solid stories and characters.  He also needs to make more plausible or at least interesting set ups for his stories.   

It is sad to see a talented man make such a dull film like this.  Not only a dull film but it also has moments so ridicules that I was laughing out loud.  I was not laughing in a good way either.  When you find out what is killing the people I cant see how you don’t laugh.  I might like the ludicrous plot, or at least forgive it, if the rest of the film worked.  Nothing in the film really works very well as it all seems so stale and dull.  I was not frightened and I did not care.  The Happening is a film that builds to nothing and leads to plenty of yawning by the end.  This film is mismanaged and deadly dull, it also is one of the years worst.