With films such as The Sixth Sense and The Village director M. Night Shyamalan has earned himself a reputation as a master of the twist ending. As such he has guaranteed that audiences will bear with him throughout the duration of one of his movies, no matter how pedestrian, simply out of curiosity. It is a feat akin to a foreign language director slipping in a few seconds of full frontal nudity towards the end of their turgid, three hour epic. Such a film is his 2008 attempt, The Happening.
Suicide
Ostensibly a disaster movie it sees Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and his estranged wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) escaping Philadelphia after an outbreak of unexplained mass suicides decimate the North East of the country. Experts analysing the situation on news broadcasts confirm the eponymous 'happening' is an airborne epidemic which effects the area of the brain responsible for self preservation, but are at a loss to account for its origins.
Thus follows a flight across rural America, first by train, then car, then on foot. Elliot and Alma are joined by a variety of friends and fellow survivors as they try and figure out what is behind the outbreak, most of whose primary function is simply to top themselves in increasingly grisly and improbable ways.
Ditchwater
The main problem with The Happening is a distinct lack of any tangible antagonist. Apart from a ham-fisted ecological subtext that would make Al Gore blush there is little attempt to rationalise what's causing people to spontaneously defenestrate. Because of this any tension and drama is confined to individual scenes, rather than sustained and intensified over the course of the film. There is no obstacle to overcome or voyage to undertake, save for a bit of running and maybe a little hiding.
In fact so devoid of dramatic cohesion is this film that any viewer fortunate enough to suffer an interruption while watching will most likely forget to un-pause it again afterwards. Shyamalan offers no incentive beyond his own reputation to see this one through to the end. What makes it more frustrating is that the actors seem to inexplicably deliver their lines as if keeping a vast and elusive secret from the audience. If only that was the case.
Twist
If you are a devout fan of M. Night Shyamalan or have a pornographic predilection for watching people kill themselves in a variety of bizarre ways then The Happening might provide an adequate 90 minute's respite. For anyone else the only twist in the tale is that the closing credits are more enjoyable than the film itself.
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