2 of 2

As you may have noticed from the aggressive marketing campaign, this is Shyamalan's first R-rated film. And he is not joking. Gone are the cutesy thrills of Signs or the bloodless scares of Unbreakable. The Happening finds Shyamalan relishing the cinematic affinity for the macabre. Unless you routinely watch Saw or Hostel-type films, The Happening will have you wincing and covering your eyes in dozens of spots. People kill themselves in creatively gruesome ways: by gun, knife, needlepoint, glass shard, lawnmower, hanging, car crash, and so on. All the deaths are suicides (if you can call them that) up until a jarring scene in which we see some children (yes, children) get killed by shotgun to the head. Clearly this is not M. Night's "bedtime story" sequel to Lady in the Water.

Shyamalan ramps up the horror, but loses some of his magic

For jumpy scares and overall eeriness, The Happening succeeds. Its failures lie in character, dialogue, and acting. Shyamalan has typically been known as a solid actor's director, but this film's two leads deliver truly baffling performances. Wahlberg can be really good (The Departed), but here he is mostly a one-note, puppy-dog-eyed bore. Deschanel is also a good actress (All the Real Girls), but gets (and gives) nearly nothing from this role. On the whole, the acting and dialogue are just very awkward, almost goofy. It is a tonally confused film—sometimes sad, sometimes, funny, sometimes apathetic. At times this adds to the aura of an off-kilter, unexplained universe; but most of the time it is just laughably bizarre.

It's frustrating to see such great talent and a compelling concept (unexplained mass suicides) add up to so little emotional or thematic weight. Still, I found the film rather intriguing—even a little thought provoking, not because it (possibly) portends a worst-case-scenario result of global warming, but because it so cavalierly eschews rational explanation. Something about the film's odd ignorance of its own interior logic rings very true in this world where so much is talked about but so little understood. With all the talking heads and the Internet's wiki-run collective intelligence, we still come up short (perhaps shorter than ever) on life's big questions.

Unfortunately this sort of gloomy perspective doesn't make for the best summer popcorn movie fare.

Talk About It

1. What do you think caused "the happening" to occur? A natural or supernatural cause? And why does it matter?
2. What role does trust or the lack thereof play in Elliot and Alma Moore's relationship?
3. What, if anything, does this film have to say about the way humans treat their natural environment?

The Family Corner

The Happening is rated R for violent and disturbing images. There are numerous very graphic and disturbing death scenes, almost all involving zombie-like suicide. Perhaps the most disturbing scene is not suicide, however, but the intentional killing of two junior high-aged boys who we see get shot at point-blank range by a shotgun. These shocking scenes (and the willingness to kill off main characters) make the film hard to watch at times, and certainly inappropriate for younger audiences. Take the R rating seriously.

Photos © Copyright Twentieth Century Fox

© Brett McCracken subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

• Plugged In
  
• Crosswalk
  
• Catholic News Service
  
• Past the Popcorn

first page |  2 of 2