Depending on who you speak to M. Night Shyamalan’s latest offering is either a laughably awful mess, an intriguing work spoilt by sanctimony, or a well crafted thriller. The same could be said of the director himself.
Shyamalan first came to our attention with the super natural mystery film The Sixth Sense. Although I don’t believe it to be the classic that some others do, it was a well written, nicely paced drama – plus it contained a well executed sting in the tail. This was followed by the brilliant (and never bettered) Unbreakable, then Signs and The Village. By now Shyamalan was synonymous with having a rug pulled from beneath your feet which is slightly strange as he consistently tells you exactly what is going to happen. Of course there was The Lady In The Water where pretension got the better of M. Night via a character called ‘Story’ and his own role as a writer who happens to also be the saviour of the piece. So what of The Happening?
Mark Wahlberg plays a high school science teacher who flees to the country following a suspected terrorist attack in which a toxin induces suicidal acts. He is joined by his wife (Zooey Deschanel), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his friend’s daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). As with the director’s earlier films what follows is a calculated unravelling of events that contains a fair number of thought provoking ideas and plenty of unsettling and absurdest images / situations. Wahlberg and Deschanel are nicely mismatched as the uneven couple (nicely assisted by the isolating framing) whilst Leguizamo is as highly watchable as ever.
Looking back it is perfectly valid to see the film as ‘preachy’ but this is mitigated by the fact that it is high time that filmmakers actual took a stand on something and gave you an opinion. All to often we are presented with rather moderate and obvious moralising when we really need to be argued with. The Happening is certainly no ‘Spike Lee joint’ but I do like the fact that people react so negatively to differing ideas. In addition to this, people seem to overlook the rather ironic final moments when the the director clearly acknowledges, and even celebrates somewhat, the fact that we just can’t help doing what we do.
To me, the negative reaction to this film is largely a reaction to it’s director. He is seen as being far too clever. Too condescending and pretentious… but so what? Here is a guy who places characters into situations and tortures them and us with rules and puzzles. Shyalaman may not be a game player in league with Michael Haneke (Funny Games, Hidden) but even a watered-down, commercial, Spielbergian version of Europe’s chief agent provocateur, whose films make it to the multiplex, is something to celebrate.
8/10
