Very impressed

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2008)

Before going into the theater with my mother I had to admit that I didn't know what to expect. I had heard equally good and bad things and wished to see for myself just what kind of movie this was going to be. After a shaky time with The Village and Lady in the Water I was very pleasantly surprised with the wonderful quality and solid story presented in The Happening.
The two things that impressed me the most were the simplistic and realistic dialog that was very refreshing and took away from the feel that I was watching a scripted movie. Witty banter is entertaining in its own right and has its place, but this allowed me to feel more like I was watching actual events taking place which only added to the disturbing feel.
This of course brings me to my next point in that once again MNS shows his knack for packing the biggest punch without having to use the blood and gore tricks of other less frightening movies. Simple scenes such as the construction workers one by one jumping from the scaffolds or the gun slowly peeking its way from the door and then the window are disturbing and terrifying in ways that gore fests could never be. Sort of like watching a car wreck, seeing it happen, knowing it's going to be bad, and knowing you're powerless to do anything to help. He has a way of turning even the simplest acts such as walking through a room into heart stopping scenes that have you waiting for the worst.
For the most part I was very happy with this movie, the cast, the dialog, and best of all the pace that it took hitting you hard right off the bat then letting you relax before throwing its next punch at you. The only real gripe I had was towards the ending. While I liked the fact that the incidents only occurred on a small scale in the US instead of the overused 'the world is going to end' theme most things like this take on I was rather disappointed with how cliché and overused the final part was. Perhaps it was necessary to have the second attack in Paris, but I have to admit that I expected a little more from him then something so simple and common place. Or at least expected it to be presented in a new fashion.