Review: The Happening

Do you ever look around at the world and feel like we’re at the tipping point? That we are precariously balanced, about to fall into disaster. The media is full of talk of global warming, the looming energy crisis, the extinction of different species, pollution, food shortages; the list goes on. We can tune it out but it’s hard to ignore completely. There’s a tension, a waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The Happening begins on this perch and slides into the disaster.

I feel like I’m one of the few people who actually enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan’s newest film. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan; the only movie of his I can say that I straight up do not like is Signs. Maybe it’s because I had no expectations going into it. Either way, while I can’t necessarily argue that it’s a good film, I will say that it is enjoyable and I feel like it gets it right in the places where it really counts.

The story is an exercise in end of the world paranoia. There has been a mysterious attack in Central Park. The population of New York has been exposed to some toxin. It begins with disorientation and incoherent speech. Its ending is fatal. We watch the event spread from the park to the city’s rooftops. And then we are spirited away to Philadelphia. We reach Elliot Moore’s classroom moments before the word of the attack does. And then we see the confusion spread faster than the toxin itself.

Is it terrorists? Is it our government? Is it something natural? Through the increasing panic one thing becomes clear: it is spreading to smaller and smaller populations and nowhere is safe.

We follow Elliot (Mark Wahlberg), his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), Elliot’s friend and fellow teacher Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian’s young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez). They flee Philadelphia only to find themselves stranded in a small town that lies in the center of the Northeast states being attacked. From there it becomes a race to safety and a fight for survival.

Unlike M. Night’s previous films there is no “twist” at the end. There is no magical solution. Whether or not our characters survive is taken out of their hands. The plot is laid out for us step by step, as is the film’s message. It’s all made very simple. The way the story is told can be a turn off; it can come across as preachy and overly moralizing. At the same time though it lets us focus not on figuring out some convoluted story, we can focus instead on what these characters are going through, what they are feeling, it gives us time to connect.

Unfortunately, we don’t necessarily have something solid to connect to. It’s hard to be engaged with characters when you can see the actors struggling with the material. I like Mark Wahlberg a lot and I think he has the potential to do great things, especially when he’s paired with a strong director, however he also has the potential to be wooden and unconvincing. In The Happening I feel like that is the case. His performance feels stiff and forced. The delivery on some of his lines is just downright painful to watch.

It’s a problem of script and direction. I didn’t particularly care for a lot of the dialogue and the actors frequently seemed to not quite know what to do with it. Zooey Deschanel had more or less one expression that she kept plastered on her face for most of the film. While the argument could be made that Alma is in shock and is having a difficult time adjusting to the circumstances, the result is a character who’s emotions fall flat. John Leguizamo also tried really hard to deliver a strong performance. He’s really good but again he just doesn’t have enough good material. You can see him struggling with it.

Stylistically I feel like The Happening has fallen behind M. Night’s previous films. Where you may not like The Village, you could probably at least agree that it looks good. The same with Lady in The Water and even Signs, no matter what they look good. The Happening looks ok. It just doesn’t live up to the bar that M. Night seems to have set for himself. Of course, when he works with cinematographers like Roger Deakins and Chris Doyle you’re pretty much guaranteed a beautiful looking film. That aside the cinematography in The Happening is very much like the script. For the most part unremarkable, at times distractingly bad.

Wait, did I not say that I enjoyed The Happening? With all of these flaws, what is there to possibly like?

While technically the film fails, emotionally it surprisingly manages to work. Despite everything I found myself time after time reacting to what I was seeing happen. I cared. Even where the performances don’t work, the chemistry between the actors does. At the same time I was cringing over Wahlberg’s delivery of a line, I was completely buying the relationship between Elliot and Alma. Their interactions with each other made me smile. There is genuine warmth. The same is true in their relationship with Jess. I believed Alma’s protective, maternal instinct where the little girl was concerned.

The film is as much about the love these characters feel for each other and their struggles to fully acknowledge and express it as it is about the mysterious toxin killing people. It’s about their struggle to overcome the problems that are of their own making.

In the end, M. Night somehow manages to overcome himself and deliver a film that hits all of the right emotional notes. It’s by no means brilliant, it’s even an odd choice for a summer release (the season of blockbusters), but personally I think it’s ultimately an enjoyable story to see told. Especially if you’re a fan of M. Night. Otherwise, there’s plenty in the film to dislike and you may want to give something else a try instead.