Trees Have Feelings Too, You Know.

Rating: 5/10 (9 December 2012)

I missed the first half hour of this, a production to which my TV Guide gave only one star out of four. That often make me anxious to see it.
By the time I tuned it, it was clear that this was one of those extended "Twilight Zone" episodes with some unseen force following a horde of refugees seeking safe zones somewhere in the Northeastern United States before they suddenly stand stock still, get all paranoid, begin repeating themselves like deranged robots, and finally commit suicide. (One guy lies down and gets himself run over by a mobile wood chopper or some similar device.) The force, whatever it is, seems connected to plant life and is carried by the wind.
It's a ridiculous movie. I've seen Mark Wahlberg in other films and thought he was fine, and at least in one case ("The Departed") outstanding. Here, as the central figure, he seems to go out of his way to prove that he can't act. The other performances are okay, and Zooey Deschanel is quite appealing.
I was surprised to find it was all written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who is a thoughtful and intelligent movie maker. Man, does he make mistakes in judgment here. Enormous close ups of faces are frequent, and a wide-angle lens turns the features into those of a porpoise. It's especially painful when Wahlberg is staring directly into the camera and shouting entreaties to an unseen listener.
Otherwise, the photography passes muster. The weeds, the trees, the flowers are all furiously green. It was shot largely in the suburbs of Philadelphia. One scene is supposed to take place in Princeton, New Jersey, an area I'm familiar with, but the placid and empty residential streets we see resemble Princeton as it was fifty years ago. Today it's a bustling industrial park full of glitz and commotion.
Anyway, as it develops, plants can communicate with each other and some can even secrete substances that repel others of their species. That's why, when you see a desert with creosote bushes, they're all so evenly spaced that they look as if they were planted. And, if attacked by parasite, some plants secrete a vapor that attracts predators that feed on the parasite. In Polynesia there is a plant called a mile-a-minute vine, and when you touch one of its miniature leaves, they all shrivel up as if afraid they'll be eaten. Oh, they're canny alright, smarter than we give them credit for.
Can I quote a stanza from Karl Shapiro's poem, "A Cut Flower"? Is it permitted? Because it's relevant to the film's message.
She tended me and held me by my stalk. Yesterday I was well, and then the gleam, The thing sharper than frost cut me in half. I fainted and was lifted high. I feel Waist-deep in rain. My face is dry and drawn. My beauty leaks into the glass like rain. When first I opened to the sun I thought My colors would be parched. Where are my bees? Must I die now? Is this a part of life?
The gleaming thing that's "sharper than frost" is a pair of scissors. It's the problem that underlies the film and provides it with a message. We're cutting down too many trees and other plants and they're responding defensively. But, don't think of this as unambiguous, or some kind of eco-leftist tract. It's not explained until the end, and then only in a TV interview hosted by a skeptic, and the argument is explained by a professor who looks and acts like a neural shambles. You wouldn't buy a potted African violet from this man, let alone a botanical and moral theory.