Very stupid or very clever

Rating: 5/10 (15 June 2008)

I read a lot of reviews of this film before I went to see it - some good, most bad - but being a Shyamalan fan I prayed that I would enjoy it. When it started, I felt myself agreeing with all the negative reviews. Zooey Deschanel's wide eyes staring at her vibrating phone made me want to hide behind the seat in front of me, it was just so awful.
However, as the film went on, I felt myself drawn into a style of film making that came across as cheesy (I think B movie has been used to describe The Happening), but at the same time strangely engrossing - weird characters, visible boom mikes et all. Before I knew it, the 90 minutes was up, which would suggest a good film as I'm terrible for clock watching in the cinema if the film is bad. You'd think Mark Wahlberg talking to a plastic pot plant could not be defined as good cinema, but for some reason it really sticks in my head as a clever scene. I don't know, perhaps they were releasing plant neurotoxins into the cinema, because I have this desire to see the film again - perhaps only to confirm that the film was indeed awful and I was just imagining things.
There are some very good shocks, and I liked the subtlety behind the many suicides - nothing overly gory, but shot in a way that suitably disturbed. On the other hand, why take a plausible scenario such as plants releasing neurotoxins, and spoil it by suggesting the completely implausible scenario that the plants can also create wind.
My 5 out of 10 rating is simply because I cannot decide if it was very awful or very clever. I would suggest that those of you haven't seen it wait for the DVD release, as I suspect a lot of you will begrudge the cost of your cinema ticket once you have seen The Happening. Myself, I'm going to watch Unbreakable again, if only to confirm that Shyamalan can make a good movie.