A good idea, but not allied to a strong story.

Rating: 5/10 (16 June 2008)

Out of the films that M. Night Shyamalan has made that I have seen, "The Happening" is definitely the worst.
The dialogue is terrible. The acting is variable. (The worst culprit is sexy Zooey Deschanel, who is wide eyed and, actually, kind of dreadful. Also, no matter how good he has been in other movies, Mark Wahlberg is just not a high school science teacher. Think how good somebody like Tim Robbins or Jeff Goldblum might have been in the same role.) The plot meanders about, going nowhere in particular, and at no particular speed. It is true: "The Happening" is a disappointment. For M. Night Shyamalan the halcyon days of "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable" seem a long, long time ago. (Can I admit at this point that I have liked all of his films, including "Lady In The Water"? Credibility blown, methinks!)
However...
M. Night Shyamalan is still a genius. (Yes he is, and I will get my Brother to fight anybody who disagrees with me.) Even a minor entry in his oeuvre is a little bit special and something to be savoured. There is not a Director today (OK, maybe David Lynch) who can match him for generating a mood of dread, disquiet and other worldliness. There are moments in "The Happening" where you literally hold your breath as you wonder what is going to happen next: The start and end sequences, the final moments of Betty Buckley and John Leguizamo's characters, the conversation with the railway staff, the wind moving through the trees...
"The Happening" has a good central idea and is an unashamed environmentally aware movie, made at a time where every Tom, Dick, Harry and automobile corporation is jumping on the Green bandwagon. It imagines a logical conclusion of the Gaia Hypothesis: If the Earth is a single organism, and is being threatened, what would happen if the Earth tried to defend itself against the aggressor?
It is a good idea, but sadly, "The Happening" has not allied it to a strong story. Such a shame, but M. Night Shyamalan will be back. Do not doubt it. He is a true original and we need more true originals.