Less a Happening, much more a Travesty.

Rating: 1/10 (9 August 2009)

I stayed on watching the extra's being played over the end credits after catching this flick on a cable movie channel. They were the standard rote of actors saying how great the other actors were, how the crew was like a family and how the director was the greatest they'd ever worked with (in Wahlbergs case, the greatest director he would ever work with. Period. So he didn't like working with Peter Jackson on The Lovely Bones even before he got on the plane to New Zealand?!?). All tedious eye- rolling stuff. However one piece stayed in my mind and it was Shyamalan commenting about how he'd got this flash of brilliance that became the genesis of this movie whilst driving home one afternoon through the countryside past wide open fields & greenery.
Two things should be learned from this incident. One, don't quickly devise a story like this based on an extremely dodgy premise then immediately rush it into production. Give it a few years to develop. That should give you enough time to reach the conclusion that it's a lousy idea and it should be killed before any further money is wasted on it. Two, all you studio heads, stop green-lighting any more Shyamalan treatments. The guy had one reasonably good idea with The Sixth Sense (I mean seriously, I'm still bemused as to how 'most' people were shocked by the 'twist'?!?), followed that up with the somewhat overrated Unbreakable (which still had some interesting moments) but has steadily continued to adhere to the law of diminishing returns (and diminishing ideas) with each subsequent film. I suggest with this one he's not only hit rock bottom, he's actually managed to drill through the bedrock of self-respect.
The first 20 minutes of this picture captures your interest. The suicides, the panic & confusion, the isolation, all enough to get you hooked in, to keep you watching. That is until you reach the scene in the field where one group (containing our main characters) are walking ahead of another group (out of sight) which is where this film well & truly JUMPS THE SHARK. This where our group of friends tries to outrun the wind because the conclusion is reached that that is how the 'madness' (for wont of a better term) is being spread. I'll repeat that, the enemy here is seemingly the breeze (oh yes, plant-life has something to do with it but it seems the wind is in serious cahoots with the trees in assisting enactment of their malevolent purpose). If you can keep a straight face when the line "Let's just stay ahead of the wind!" is spoke then you must lack a funny bone. It's almost like the screenwriter handed the rest of the script to the nearest 12 year old to complete as part of a school project. Look, there's nothing wrong with levity in a (supposedly) serious film. It's almost integral, after all no one can take 2 hours or so of relentless doom. Heck, even 'The Road' has moments of humor in it but they don't detract from the fact that at it's heart it is literally a horror story. I read a forum comment by a person who seemed to be one of the few who enjoyed this film defending it by saying that the director never meant for it to be taken as a horror film. Yet in the extra's Shyamalan states that it was absolutely his intention to instill an atmosphere of fear & paranoia in the viewer for the entire duration. I believe he name-checked Hitchcocks 'The Birds' to support his statement. One can only surmise, looking at the end result that he has indeed failed miserably because what's on screen more closely resembles a classic Uwe Boll film than anything Uwe Boll himself has made lately.
The performances by the leads are awful. Wahlberg seems to think wide- eyed & high-pitched is the way to play up the fear & apprehension. Zooey Deschanel, one of the most beautiful & talented actresses on screen (criminally underrated most of the time if you ask me. Tho not this particular time) is just missing the entire time. Sure, her body is there and she's reciting the banal lines she's been given, but her mind is someplace else. Probably hundreds of miles away, strangling her agent. Someone. Please. Tell me what this is about?
Elliot: If we're going to die, I want you to know something. I was in the pharmacy a while ago. There was a really good-looking pharmacist behind the counter. Really good-looking. I went up and asked her where the cough syrup was. I didn't even have a cough, and I almost bought it. I'm talking about a completely superfluous bottle of cough syrup, which costs like six bucks.
Alma: Are you joking?
(Elliot nods his head)
Alma: Thank you.
Or this?
Mrs. Jones: (to Elliot and Alma) So what's with you two? Who's chasing who? Alma Moore: I'm sorry? Mrs. Jones: Ain't no time two people staring at each other, or standing still, loving both with their eyes are equal. Truth is, someone is chasing someone. That's the way we's built. So, who's chasing? (Elliot raises his hand)
I'm sorry. The script is full of nonsense like this, these are but two examples. They are far sillier when placed in the context of the actual scenes they are from. Without a doubt the worst movie I have seen in a very very long time made by a man who has been given the benefit of doubt for far too long.