Note: I've sort of changed my mission statement with regards to this series, whereas I initially set out to write a definitive list of misplaced and disregarded films, I now am reacting to whatever films I deem to be suffering critical injustices. I'm also ignoring the cap of seventeen I placed on this list as I have a list of about forty more films I could cover. Whoops.
I don't think I'll ever understand the vitriol that some people feel toward The Happening. Sure, M. Night Shyamalan is a tacky filmmaker who's done some absolutely atrocious work (I didn't even see Lady in the Water and I'm pretty sure it's awful) and relies on twists to make his movies memorable. But despite this, and despite being one of the most hated big budget directors (Michael Bay easily surpasses him, but Bay's is a reputation rightly earned) Shyamalan has turned out a pretty decent movie. You just have to approach it from the right angle.
First off, this is not a deep, intelligent film, but I think you knew that. This film was not grown in the same garden that The Sixth Sense was; it was harvested from the back of Shyamalan's mind, that dark corner that commits to memory B-pictures and awkward yet lovable science fiction. The idea is that plants start emitting a spore of sorts that disorients people, then causes them to kill themselves. Trapped within this obscure set of circumstances are Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel), a science teacher and his wife, as well as his coworker Julian (John Leguizamo).
However, this movie is not about its characters, it is about a situation, an unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented apocalypse that has an inane explanation. Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, and Zooey Deschanel may not be in their element here, but each gives a little bit of an edge to their characters despite being pretty much interchangeable. Wahlberg does an extraordinary job of playing the average, withdrawn yet frustrated science teacher, Leguizamo performs admirably in a role that exists essentially to attract sympathy, and then... well, take advantage of it. Yeah, Deschanel's got doughy eyes the entire movie, but she does give Alma that blindly sympathetic look she needs to come off believably.
Article comments
1 - Derek Fleek
Sticking up for The Happening? Watch out, you are going to get nailed to the wall for this one.
Between me, you, and whoever happens to read this, I happened to enjoy The Happening also. Just don't tell anyone. :)