The Happening – What is Happening?
This movie is an interesting case study, as it is very hard to tell if it’s a cutting satire or just a terrible movie.
Shyamalan’s eighth film, The Happening, is a story of science teacher Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) attempting to survive “an event” that is causing large groups of mass suicide. This descriptor of “an event” is what they call it most of the film.
Shyamalan himself has said that, “We’re making an excellent B-movie. That’s our goal.” So please keep that in context during the rest of my review, dear reader.
You wouldn’t think it, but Marky Mark himself was one of the worst parts of this film. He was funny, and was definitely leaning into the cheese factor of it all, but every single line delivery was like he was asking a question, and every expression he makes reads as confusion.
Deschanel wasn’t much better. She loved to open her eyes as wide as she could and stare just off camera. I bought her performance more and more as the film went on, but her opening few scenes were brutal. Maybe I was taking everything too seriously (I wasn’t taking it very seriously at all) but wow.
This is Shyamalan’s first “R” rated film – and for good reason. There’s some pretty gruesome stuff in here. I would probably avoid this if you’re squeamish.
The characters begin the film believing “the event” was caused by terrorists. How that makes any sense, I’m not sure. Before long, Wahlberg is able to figure out the trees are releasing a chemical into the air that is causing the massive death toll (not really a spoiler, as he figures this out at the end of act one). The rest of the film is spent with our main characters trying to find shelter indoors, away from the potentially polluted air.
However, they do a very poor job at staying inside, always finding an excuse to go back out into the dangerous air. They need food. They need to get away from the roads. They want to play with some frogs. No matter what the excuse, I think they just all needed some fresh air.
One redeeming storyline was the relationship between Wahlberg and Deschanel. As the film starts, you learn how their relationship is on the rocks and they might be separating soon. However, as the movie goes on, they grow closer and reconcile their differences. It’s not especially powerful, but it is something positive I could find to write about this.
The ending is insanely rushed. I’m not sure if the goal on set was just to go home, but after the climax the movie just slaps on a quick coda and calls it quits.
Shyamalan Rankings:
This one is tough to rank. It really is. I could understand if you fell anywhere between love and unbridled hatred toward this film. I likely won’t watch this again, but never say never…
- Signs
- The Sixth Sense
- Unbreakable
- The Village
- Wide Awake
- The Happening
- Lady in the Water
- Praying With Anger
Be sure to join me next week, as I bring you my review of Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. Stay tuned.
