The Happening: Movie, DVD, Blu-ray Review

Movie, DVD, Blu-ray Review

"The Happening"


From a provocative, purely scientific viewpoint, it isn’t a new concept to look at Earth as just a cell floating in the body of the universe. On it are its natural inhabitants--trees, foliage, water--all living in relative harmony with fauna, and all of which over time have been invaded by its greatest challenge, the virus that is human life itself.

As with any cell invaded by a pathogen whose actions actively are destroying it (in this case, either via over population, carbon emissions, environmental recklessness, or reality television shows such as “The Hills”), there’s the struggle to shake it off and defeat it so the cell itself can survive.

It’s this concept that’s at the core of M. Night Shyamalan's “The Happening,” which might not be a full return to form for the director of “The Sixth Sense,” but which certainly is a vast improvement over the long run of disappointments he’s delivered since: “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “The Village” and “Lady in the Water.”

From the director’s own script, “The Happening” opens in New York City, where people in Central Park are behaving unusually.

First, confusion takes hold. Second, many stop in their tracks and look as if they’ve just been struck dumb by a brick. Third, and most brutal (this is Shyamalan’s first R-rated film, and he goes for the gore here), many others start taking their own lives in all sorts of creative ways--hair pins to the throat, lawn mowers mulching bodies, bullets to the head, plenty of people leaping off skyscrapers.

What gives? That’s for the movie to answer--no spoilers here. But where the film goes next can be explored.

In Philadelphia is Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher who is addressing his students about the mysterious death of honey bees when word comes that New York City is being evacuated because of a potential terrorist threat. Has a gas been released into the atmosphere that’s making people take their own lives? In the wake of anthrax and 9/11, anything is possible, so fear blooms far and wide, particularly when the suicides start to ripple across the Northeast and then stretch into Philadelphia.

There, another mass exodus ensues, with Elliot and his estranged wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), fleeing via train with Elliot’s best friend (John Leguizamo) and his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). To say that all doesn’t go well is an understatement, particularly with self-induced death encroaching so rapidly, and especially when some members of this group come upon one disturbed lady in the woods (Betty Buckley, beautifully stealing her scenes).

When the weak dialogue isn’t working against the film, “The Happening” is spare, satisfying and suspenseful. Shyamalan moves through the film’s illogical plot points by steeping the production in B-movie nonsense, the lot of which is interlaced with only kernels of scientific truth. He’s having fun here, but he’s skilled enough to not show his hand; instead, he gives the genre a polish it often doesn’t have.

There also is the sense that he has removed himself from the movie. This isn’t the showy production we’ve come to expect from Shyamalan, nor should anyone be seeking one of his tired twists. Instead, this is a movie made by a talented director known first for creating one great movie, then for the string of flops that followed, and now this--a reason to believe that dismissing him would be a mistake.

Grade: B

View the trailer for "The Happening" here: