If only the script could have reflected Shyamalan's great ideas and imagination

Rating: 3/10 (17 June 2008)

M. Night Shyamalan has a habit of making movies that look and sound genuinely interesting. The man clearly has an immense imagination, and it shows in the content he produces. But after the disappointment of The Village and the absolutely terrible Lady in the Water, I think I was one of the few that still held out hope for The Happening.
For good reason too.
As the title and promos suggest, The Happening revolves around an "event" that is making people in certain states in the US commit suicide. Originally pegged as the work of biological terrorists, everyone in the top most Eastern states attempts to flee, but the threat continues to wreck havoc on the populous. The film focuses on the plight of Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Alma (Zooey Deschanel) Moore, who are attempting to get out of Philadelphia with the daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), of one of their friends.
Intriguingly, Shyamalan starts the film right off with the event beginning to take place in New York City, and barely breaks pace to breathe from there. Much like Cloverfield, this is a movie about running and survival. We are barely introduced to Elliot and Alma before they find out about what is going on, and attempt to leave Philadelphia. He leaves very little time to get to know anyone the two encounter (much less the pair themselves), and spend more time on how they are avoiding what looks like an inevitable death. And in this respect (minus some really bogged down exposition near the final third of the film), Shyamalan manages to recreate the breakneck thriller style we knew him for back when he was first starting out (so basically everything pre-Village).
He is also very effect in his use of violence. It is never too gruesome, but it is fairly graphic nonetheless. The film was advertised heavily as his first attempt at an R-rating, and he uses this minor hindrance to his advantage. But instead of being in-your-face about the violence, he builds up to it, hitting us with graphic images for only a few minor seconds (as opposed to the near pornographic depictions in "thrillers" like Saw IV and Hostel). He teases and shows only what he needs to, and then throws up the rest quickly in the cases that need it. And when he is not being ridiculous with his death sequences, it looks like he is making a genuine attempt at scaring the audience.
But unfortunately for Shyamalan, this is not the movie that will deliver him out of the rut he is in. If anything, he just made the hole a touch bigger.
For one thing, the storyline becomes ludicrously bad after the devastating effects begin to become apparent. It just seems like he cooked up the idea for the story, wrote an amazing opening, and then had no idea what to do afterwards. Everything that comes after the initial set-up either feels half baked, or feels haphazardly thrown together at the last minute. There is little commitment to these scenes, and there is even less in the cohesiveness of the story. The film is not long at all (and practically flies through its running time), but it feels like a lot of loose ideas Shyamalan had super-glued together in his script, than it does something he actually spent real time working on. I admire and like the reasoning behind the attacks, but Shyamalan only has the idea on display here, not the real workings of it.
Laughably bad death scenes aside, Shyamalan also needs to work on his dialogue. The Happening is nowhere near as dialogue heavy as any of his other scripts, and as a result, leaves a lot of room for error. I know that Wahlberg is a decent actor capable of greatness. But here, his character is worse than one-dimensional. Yes, we have the pathos for his character built up in nearly every scene, but his dialogue does not sound like that of any human being I have ever met in my life. If I am being faced with a life-altering decision, I doubt I would ever just say "Oh no", and not really mean it. If the audience is laughing at what your characters are saying, instead of being terrified of what may or may not be coming for them, something is most definitely wrong.
We know, at the very least, that Shyamalan can write decent dialogue. The man was not nominated for a writing Oscar simply based off the crazy ending people still talk about. So what happened here? Did he really set out to write the most wooden dialogue of the year? Did the studio really push him into the project based solely off the main idea that is expressed with the first ten minutes? Valid questions yes, but ones that will never be answered by the man himself.
Acting wise, the movie is nearly unwatchable. Wahlberg and Deschanel are the essence of mismatched pair, and not once is their relationship believable. I realize that some of their subplot involves the troubles they are having in their marriage, but it does not explain the fact that they never show any real desire for having liked each other in the first place. Sadly, Deschanel fairs even worse than Wahlberg's cardboard acting. I really liked some of her previous work, but here she looks confused for the majority of the film, and completely out of it for the rest.
The supporting cast is not much better. Sanchez does not even bother making an attempt at trying to look desperate, John Leguizamo gets next to no time to develop anything, and Betty Buckley's character is just too quirky for words.
The Happening has some great ideas, but no foundations to do anything with them. Shyamalan has the ability to make something of his movies, why not use it instead of giving us this half-baked garbage?
3.5/10.