Zooey Deschanel - The Happening
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 23:1 PM. Posted by Marasaw.com (162 views)
The Happening - Movie Reviews
The Happening (2008) Movie Information:
The Happening (2008) Directed by:
M. Night Shyamalan
The Happening (2008) Written by:
M. Night Shyamalan
The Happening (2008) Cast:
Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo
The Happening (2008) U.S. Distributor:
20th Century Fox
The Happening (2008) U.K. Distributor:
20th Century Fox
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The Happening (2008) Synopsis:
A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.
The Happening (2008) Movie Review:
After a strong opening sequence, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening flutters and goes nowhere as a paranoia thriller. With this film it is like writer/director Shyamalan creates a garden, but without any seeds in it to sprout, just soil.
The film opens in New York City’s Central Park, where some type of toxin is released in the air, which leaves people speechless, neurologically disabled, and finally suicidal. The toxin begins to move airborne through the city on its way to other parts of the North eastern section of the United States.
Shift to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the outbreak is first thought to be some sort of terrorist attack. Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) is a whiz high school science teacher that along with his estranged wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) has decided to evacuate from the city. Joining them is Elliot’s best friend, Julian (John Leguizamo) and his young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). The four get out of the city by train heading south, however, the train loses contact with the world and is halted before reaching its destination. With no where to turn, Eliot and the others begin searching the countryside for safety before the toxin catches up with them.
Shyamalan was once Hollywood’s golden child, after delivering showing brilliance with his thriller The Sixth Sense, and finding summer box office gold with the invasion film Signs. However, Shyamalan last two films have left a bad taste in moviegoers and critics mouths, with the scorned drama The Village and the fairytale diabolical The Lady in The Water. Especially with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan showed nearly perfect camera selections in showing the audience what he wants them to see before revealing his secrets. It is as if he toyed with the audience to keep them at the edge of their seats.
Being marketed as his first R rated thriller, Shyamalan now delivers The Happening, which is a disaster all in its self. There is absolutely no pulse, no depth, no energy, and no thrills in this film. One area that is in Shyamalan’s favor is that the opening sequence in New York City is eerie, but if you have seen the trailer for the film, than most of the sequence in revealed. After this opening, The Happening is dead in the water, with the whole secret of what the toxin is practically having the film shouting environmental revenge. Though the film does have some disturbing and brutal deaths, the film is not scary and it is in fact pretty boring though it is only 90 minutes long. The script is weak and the lines are laughable, though this is intended to be a B-movie thriller. There are also continuous shots of the same things, such as the wind in the fields, over and over that help drag the film along. The Happening also just gets worse as it moves forward. Another embarrassing example is when in fact Elliot speaks to a plant as if he is begging it to stop the toxin, which he momentarily finds out that the plant is artificial, much like the film.
Mark Wahlberg has never looked so lost in a film, as he is as Eliot. He has numerous full close-up shots in the film, and plays the character as if he has no backbone. Zooey Deschanel is also misguided as Alma despite her intense big blue eyes. John Leguizamo also has hardly anything to work as Julian and is also not given enough screen time.
The Happening just does not succeed with its intentions and gives Shymalan another black eye on his resume, which now may be one too many.
Source: realmovienews.com
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