A solid return for Shyamalan, but not without its flaws

Rating: 8/10 (22 June 2008)

After the lacklustre 'The Village' I wondered if M. Night Shyamalan still had it in him to make a good movie (no, I have yet to see 'Lady in the Water'). Furthermore, before I finally got to see this, the sheer amount of negative reviews were disheartening to say the least (I loved the trailer). I went into this on neutral grounds, not expecting good or bad and I was pleasantly surprised. This latest effort is an eerie and intelligent film and although not perfect, it is definitely head-and-shoulders above most crap that makes it into the cinemas.
The film opens in Central Park, New York with two young females sitting on a park bench, reading. All of a sudden, everyone stops and one of the women stabs her neck with a hairpin. Enter the 'happening.' From here on we witness numerous cases of random suicide in the public and eventually find ourselves with Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher. He is evacuated with wife Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) and fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo) and his daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). Their train comes to a sudden halt and they are lead off and basically abandoned. Left to fend for themselves, they set off to find a safe place and wait out the disaster.
Overall, the movie is very successful and well-made. Syamalan's directing is great, the movie proceeds logically at a smooth pace. Likewise, his script is interesting although it somewhat loses steam right at the end, which is unfortunate. The suicide scenes are incredibly shot and unsettling. There is a particularly effective one at the start, involving a gun that is passed on from person to person as they shoot themselves. This, and various similar scenes, are some of the most effective scenes I have seen in a film for awhile. On the note of effective, another sequence towards the end is a big "punch to the gut." It comes almost out of nowhere and is disturbing and caught the audience in my theatre off-guard.
However, as previously mentioned, this is not without its imperfections. Mark Wahlberg completely overacts in the lead role. His reactions to many scenarios were silly and killed any seriousness of his character. At times it was hard not to laugh at it. And that is unfortunate, because I really like Wahlberg, he is an incredible actor and could have really got a decent performance out of this movie. Having said this, Zooey Deschanel was great, she is proving herself as an outstanding actress. John Leguizamo is his usual awesome self in a supporting role (which should have been fleshed out a little more). In fact, this movie could have benefited from a more developed plot. An extra 20 minutes of character development and plot would have really helped make this more than a entertaining 91 minutes at the movies. Here, Shyamalan has touched upon the issue of Man vs. Nature in an unique and oddly plausible way. More depth could have pushed it into the realms of greatness.
Nevertheless, The Happening is one of the superior movies in the cinemas at the moment and a standout amongst the crappy teen horrors and remakes.
4/5