Masterpiece of Humility and Altruism over Arrogance and Selfishness

Rating: 9/10 (19 June 2008)

Another masterpiece from the maddeningly misunderstood and much maligned auteur M. Night Shyamalan. Beware: spoiler alert!! The Happening is a first-rate, suspenseful, Hitchcockian morality play chronicling the struggle between rational man and an unknowable world. Humanity consists of selfish arrogance (or selfish insanity) and unselfish humility. When confronted with the unknowable, only the latter endure. Along with the main characters--a married couple and a child--we watch helplessly as the selfish and self-assured attempt to explain, flee, or conquer The Happening only to meet their own grizzly demises as comeuppance for their nasty, selfish, and brutal lives. Survivalists, jingoists, and proselytizers, among many others, reap what they sow while the humble, kind, and unassuming lead characters continually exhibit the behavior that insulates them from The Happening. Our heroes are forced to care for a child, nearly left behind at a small-town diner, and almost blown away by shotgun blasts. But they persevere and even thrive while others do not for one reason and one reason only: they do not presume to have all the answers and are always considerate and selfless - even in the middle of a crisis. Shyamalan's lesson is that we should live our lives with humility and altruism despite being surrounded by a sea of presumption, pomposity, materialism and egotism. Of course Hollywood has no idea how to market Shyamalan's films and this time they're banking on the willingness of 15-year-old mall rats desperate to part with their summer movie dollars on any horror flick that comes their way. Of course this picture, like all of Shyamalan's work, belongs in front of an educated film audience willing to challenge themselves and dig beneath the surface for enlightenment through art. Sadly, nearly everyone--critics and audiences alike--failed to "get" this film just as they failed to get each of his masterpieces that came before. But that shouldnâ't surprise Shyamalan as nearly everyone succumbs to the happening too.