As I write this "The Happening" sits on Rotten Tomatoes with a putrid score of 21% from critics. To put that in perspective that means that both "Drillbit Taylor" AND "What Happens in Vegas" were favored by the national media over this scare-fest wannabe. So you might be asking yourself as a person who loved "The Sixth Sense" and whispered "I see dead people" a dozen times to your friends nine years ago, can it really be as bad as people are saying? Has M. Night Shyamalan really lost it?
Er...maybe? I think that's the most positive spin I can give to the perplexing enigma that is "The Happening." And sadly the enigma is not about the story (nary a clever twist or turn here) but Shyamalan himself. How can a guy with so much talent misfire this badly? To be fair, there's plenty of blame to go around in "The Happening." The performances are off the charts bizarre. Mark Wahlberg, who I now grudgingly respect after seeing how charmingly self-effacing he can be in person, is horribly miscast. Zooey Deschanel looks and sounds more frightened to be acting in the movie than to actually be experiencing the events in the movie. And then there's CRAZY-TOWN's Betty Buckley in scenes that make Kathy Bates' especially loco moments in "Misery" seem understated.
I've always admired Shyamalan's technique behind the camera and that's still in evidence here. He's a precise and confident filmmaker who is clearly no one-hit wonder ("Unbreakable" far exceeds "The Sixth Sense" in my humble estimation) but man alive...what the hell?!? Come back to us, Night! Come back!!!
Have you checked out "The Happening" yet? Will you see it despite what the critics are saying? What do you think of M. Night Shyamalan? The next Spielberg? Or another over-hyped would-be wunderkid?
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