A Wake Up Call

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2008)

I guess I would fall under the crusader type reviewers here. Shayamalan's movie's have always given me something to think about. I hold respect for him as a director for this. Weather it be that we walk with the dead in "Sixth Sense" or that we are not alone, like in "Signs". Even the fact that there are super extraordinary individuals among us, as in "Unbroken". All these films have one thing in common. Realism taken to the next dimension. The one we are afraid to admit.
This movie again touches on a very serious subject. Yes we are killing off the planet. Yess it's 90% the governments fault...and yes a higher power must prevent us. Or at least the planet itself. It's an amazing plot when you really think about it. The plants have always been dismissed as decorative symbolism, but they are much more than that. They were here on this planet way before the first human touched foot on land. Watching and analyzing the way ,us humans are destroying our planet with toxins, pesticides, etc...Who says they can't think? They react to sunlight, darkness and weather just like all of us. Shayamalan takes this theory one step further and presents the plants as heralds of bad tidings. They communicate with each other, alter our thoughts and ultimately show the population what will happen if the o-zone layer is completely wiped out. That's right, I said the O word. That is really what the message the film is trying to convey.
On with the acting, While I will agree with the ,lot and say that perhaps Wahlberg was not at his strongest, he did pretty much carry 80% of the film on his shoulders. A little more attitude would have really given him a commending performance, but as a high school science teacher, he couldn't be that tough. Another favorite of mine is John Luegazamo(I apologize for bad spelling). His character had some real promise, but was completely deduced to a confused, desperate supporting role. John usually brings Sass and Attitue to a film. Another miscast on Shayamalan's part. Both of this actors were restrained to an extent that I could only call ridiculous.
The female lead, played accordingly by Zooey Deschanel was surprising to the least. I had never seen her act before and to be honest I was about to dismiss her as the typical wife role. To my chagrin ,she turned out a pretty charming performance. Her gorgeous next door girl looks really helped a lot as well. In fact, my friend completely mistakened her for Mary Elizabeth Winstead as first glance.
The rest of the aspects of the film were above level, but not amazing. Quite a few flaws in direction in that we are left hopelessly to use our imaginations on a lot of "Off Camera" scenes and it did leave me with a somewhat dissatisfied feeling. The end was another big question mark. Somhow the film wanted to achieve that feeling of satisfaction from a Twilight Zone episode, but fell short of expectations, especially in the final scene with the French. Who adds Foreigh dialog and no English subtitles? It also completely dismisses the original theory of the " wake up call" What did work ,was the pace. Keep moving forward or East, as used in this film. What I did like was the hopeless or dead end feeling I got as the survivors move from state to state ,only to meet their demise. It brings up an important factor. The plant life completely overpopulates us and if this scenerio was ever to happen, we would be completely over taken by the planet.