Picturenose

Just not happening…
It’s strange - the exalted expectation ahead of every new Alfred Hitchcock M. Night Shyamalan effort seems usually based on amnesia concerning his recent work (which, quite frankly, is amazing, when you consider just how woeful both Lady in the Water (2006) and The Village (2004) were) and a kind of long-term collective eulogizing over how good his first film, The Sixth Sense (1999), supposedly was.

Listen up, people - here’s the news. The Sixth ‘What-on-earth-is-the-twist-going-to-be-I-See-Dead-People-oh-yeah-right’ Sense was by and large overacted bobbins and Shyamalan’s lesser-raved pics, Unbreakable (2000) and Signs (2002) are in fact far more nuanced, subtle evocations of weirdness and wibbly-wobblies.

Having got that off my chest, what of The Happening? Harumph. It starts well enough - reminiscent of Stephen King’s recent not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper end-of-the-world novel, Cell (presently in pre-production), Shyamalan’s vision of a (supernatural? That would be telling) local, inexplicable apocalypse is genuinely disturbing at the outset - people stop dead in their tracks, begin to spout gibberish, then kill themselves, a central MacGuffin that serves to provide suitable shocks throughout proceedings, with a mass building-jump a particular standout.

And, wouldn’t you know it, but New-York based science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), who seems really down with the kids, man, is just delivering a lecture to his students on an inexplicable natural event (mass bee disappearance), when the bad news reaches his school. Deciding to follow government instructions and evacuate the city with his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), with whom his relationship is presently somewhat vexed, the scale of ‘The Happening’ begins to take on species-threatening characteristics, as more and more of the East coast region is affected. To make matters more complicated, his best-friend’s daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) is also in tow - is doom en route?

Despite its intriguing concept, the flick suffers enormously from a strained Shyamalan script, leading to a severe credibility gap concerning the husband-wife pairing at the film’s core. You simply don’t/can’t buy them as a married couple, which undermines any suggestion that they’re having ‘marital’ problems, which in turn removes any sense that either really cares for the other, destroying audience empathy as a result.

Furthermore, the only really scary aspect (namely, that the horrific event may be inexplicable) is weakened by the director’s decision to name a ‘culprit’. I know that Shyamalan’s appeal is usually based on twist-expectations, so, much as I want to, I won’t spoil the ‘revelation’ but, really, M. Night does all the damage to his own work anyway, with a denoument (in France, would you believe?) that gives new meaning to ‘tacked on’.

Any good stuff? As I said, it starts well, there’s an excellent shock cut at one point, and a very good performance is coaxed from young Sanchez as the terrified child in peril but, really, that’s about your lot. Disappointing, but (see first paragraph) we’re getting used to that from Shyamalan.

91 mins.