Great director, terrible film.

Rating: 4/10 (16 June 2008)

I refuse to write a synopsis of the film in my comments as, if you are reading about this film, already know what it is about.
First off, I like M. Night. "Unbreakable", "Signs", and "Lady in the Water" are all excellent movies that are the work of a truly unique voice in American film-making. I've never seen "The Sixth Sense", as the ending was ruined for me the day after the film came out and I realized there is no sense in seeing a film that, knowing a huge spoiler like that, would have me watching the movie the whole time thinking "Of course he's dead, it's obvious." "Unbreakable" is an amazing piece of film-making that is the best comic book movie not based on a comic book (of course, "Hancock" isn't out yet...). It's a great story about human beings and the father/son relationship in the movie reminds me of me and my father - he'll always be a superhero to me. "Signs" is the best sci-fi - very low tech and character driven. "The Village" was entertaining, but I saw the ending a mile away. "Lady in the Water" is probably one of the most under-appreciated films in modern cinema. It's going to be like "Blade Runner", 10 years from now, people will call it a masterpiece. It's an adult fairy-tale. What's wrong with that?
After seeing the trailers and the R-rating for "The Happening", I was excited. Mark Wahlberg is a good young actor, as are Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo. It looked like the apocalyptic thriller I always felt that M. Night had in him. I was wrong.
The first half hour or so of the film are excellent. M. Night knows how to build tension better than most directors out there. He's a great director and this film is directed extremely well. The direction is not the problem here. Wahlberg is terribly miscast. Leguizamo's role could have been played by anyone. The plague is mysterious, but the reason behind it is given about a third of the way into the film and that reason is ludicrous. It seems like Wahlberg's character is talking himself and everyone else in to that theory for the rest of the film. When it is finally revealed at the end of the film that that theory is the actual reason for the plague, my jaw dropped. Where's the twist? Where's the dark tone that an idea like this requires for a coda? The epilogue in Paris is just plain silly.
I did learn a few things from this movie, though. First, I'll never look at a tree the same way again - I'll just point and laugh. Two, maybe living in the desert isn't such a bad idea after all. Or Alaska. And lastly, a great director and a bad script do not make a good match. I love ambiguous films where crazy things happen for no good reason. Nature run amok films especially. Check out "The Long Weekend" or "Who Can Kill a Child?" instead. Those are horrifying films with similar, and more effective, results. But don't blame poor M. Night. He's just a regular guy who can't hit home runs every time. Maybe he should take his own advice and "Swing away." He'll hit another one out of the park eventually. Unfortunately, "The Happening" is like grounding out right to the pitcher.