The critical response to M. Night Shyamalan's movies seems to have gotten increasingly more negative with each movie he's made. He peaked early with the remarkable "The Sixth Sense" and did well with the lesser-known and under-appreciated "Unbreakable." "Signs" and "The Village" were so-so while "Lady in the Water" was a complete disaster. But with "The Happening," Shyamalan shows promise once again, at least with his directing if not his writing.
"The Happening" opens with a seemingly normal day in Central Park: children running, people walking their dogs, friends chatting on a bench. But soon people start forgetting things, are unable to speak, walk backwards and are ultimately driven to suicide. Suspecting that terrorists have released a toxin into the city, people are forced to evacuate.
Schoolteacher Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and his estranged wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) board a train and escape to Pennsylvania, but the train shuts down and they are stuck in the middle of nowhere with their friend's young daughter. As people try to figure out where to go, they find out that people are dying in smaller and smaller populations. They also discover that whatever is happening might not be because of terrorists at all, but the result of natural causes.
As more people start dying, Elliot and Alma must figure out how to survive and avoid the happening until it passes over.
The plot of "The Happening" is interesting and well-crafted. Through his direction, Shyamalan is able to instill the fear in his audience of trying to survive something infinitely bigger than oneself. It's in the dialogue that the film could use a little work.
At times Wahlberg's and Deschanel's performances feel sub-par, likely due to the stale writing rather than their abilities as actors. They have been continuously impressive with their previous work, but even they can't communicate the story without the dialogue coming across as forced.
Shyamalan's direction, though, harkens back to his work in "The Sixth Sense." Every shot has a Hitchcockian vibe to it, frightening the viewer without throwing around gratuitous amounts of gore. For the most part the suicides happen off camera, and it's what viewers don't see that frightens them the most.
Bodies rain down from a rooftop but the camera cuts away before the sound of a sickening splat. A woman's legs are in the frame as she bends down, picks up a gun, pulls the trigger and falls as a trail of blood oozes between the cracks in the sidewalk. It is these wordless moments that continue to frighten the audience and keep them in suspense.
Unfortunately Shyamalan's promising directing and his awkward writing don't mesh, causing "The Happening" to fall short of its potential. It doesn't come close to the brilliance of "The Sixth Sense," but it's also a step above "The Village" and far superior to "Lady in the Water." Though Shyamalan's had a bit of a slump since his incredible thriller debut, "The Happening" shows there is still hope for him as a director. C-
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