An "elephant" of a film.

Rating: 6/10 (16 July 2008)

Remember the story of the four blind men? They were walking down a road and encountered an elephant. They had never come across one before.
A passer by told them they were standing by an elephant. The first blind man walked forward, ran into the side of the elephant, and said; "an elephant is like a wall." The second blind man walked forward and came to the elephant's leg. Putting his arms around the elephants leg he said; "an elephant is like a tree." The third one took hold of the animals trunk and said; "an elephant is like a snake." The last grabbed the creatures tail and said; "an elephant is like a rope." Of such varied opinions, depending on your perspective, is the film "The Happening." I've read a lot of different views about the film, and, yes, it appears that I have a very different perspective.
First, and this is not directly about the film itself, I do not think graphic portrayals of suicide are "entertaining." I don't buy the ever increasing representation of so called "realism" that today's film makers seem to think is vital to what they are trying to communicate.
We've reached the point in our society where we can sit in darkened theaters eating popcorn, drinking Coke, and chug it all down while we're watching absolutely realistic portrayals of the most gruesome and downright sick representations of self inflicted death that you can possibly imagine.
This is our version of "feeding the Christians to the lions." I imagine the ancient Romans were also enjoying their snacks while they watched people being eaten alive by animals, burned alive etc. and indeed they also called it "entertainment." Just because we're doing it with special effects does not make us "better" than they were. What we're doing is just as much a sign of sickness, and is just as dangerous as what is portrayed in "The Happening." Our sickness is also self destructive. History has proved that; we're just not paying attention.
Regarding the movie, I honestly think that the story line itself had the same overall quality as Hitchcock's "The Birds." It they had underplayed the deaths, instead of throwing them in our faces with hot "air sick bag" graphic portrayals, it's possible they could have had a truly classic "fright film" with as one reviewer stated, the atmosphere of a "Twilight Zone" episode. Alas, it was not to be.
I'm sorry to say they missed their chance to have this film placed on the same shelf as Alfred's. Hitchcock's film will never be forgotten; this one will.