Three strikes and he’s almost out with his third film in a row getting a less than stellar reception, it would appear that the writing is definitely on the wall for M Knight Shyamalan’s career. After the breakout success of the vastly overrated, “The Sixth Sense”, the world was his oyster and he chose as his follow up, the masterful “Unbreakable” followed by the almost as good “Signs.” Then the slide began with “The Village”, a one-note, flimsy premise that fell apart with the slightest bit of scrutiny. “Lady in the Water” was slightly better with a fantasy themed plot wrapped around a sad, wounded performance by Paul Giamotti, but failed to gather as much steam as his early hits. “The Happening” falls into that weird middle ground; it comes nowhere near the greatness of “Unbreakable” and fails to tap into the emotional highs and exquisite tension of “Signs.” The important thing is it’s not as bad as the critics claim, but not nearly as good as it could have been. The film opens in New York’s Central Park with people mysteriously offing themselves; stabbings, jumping from high rise construction sites and lying in front of lawnmowers and taunting tigers in a zoo; the film certainly has some sick fun with the creative ways of suicide. The first thought is terrorists. Neuro-toxin is used to explain the mass murders, but further investigation proves its something far more mysterious and but not so sinister. Soon, the threat hits Philadelphia, the city is evacuated, a slight panic ensues as the mad rush for the small towns begins. It's soon learned that plants and trees are releasing a toxin that for reasons never fully explained, makes people committ suicide. Animals are not affected.
Elliot Moore, (Wahlberg) his wife (Deschanel) and best friend's daughter head for the hills as Mother Nature strikes back. Many have scoffed at the premise of nature getting its revenge on humanity. Shyamalan does a reasonable job of making the foliage attack acceptable, absurd, yes of course, but not really when Global Warming is an accepted theory with practically zero scientific consensus or solid evidence why not killer plants? However, as much as love to watch his movies, his wonderful framing, smooth as silk dolly shots, zooms, this one sputters. Mark Wahlberg, plays a science teacher Elliot Moore for no real reason as it’s’ not he who figures out what all the hub bub is about. He takes his sincere persona to the hilt, sometimes it works, other times its obnoxious, but he does get better as the story progresses. He does get a good laugh out of the material by pleading with a plant only to discover it’s plastic. Zooey Deschanel, plays Elliot’s wife, Alma and surprise, surprise, they are in the midst of marital strife when things go FUBAR. She’s an actress of so little distinction that I am always getting her confused with the also dull and similar acting/looking Chloe Sevigny. Dull as a silent fart, there’s really nothing any actress of accomplishment could have done with this part. Thankless is hardly the proper description. The best performance in the movie is from, of all people, John Leguizamo as Elliot's best friend. Usually, an irritating presence, but he dials down, way down, to give a sympathetic turn as a father in search of his missing wife. The real disappointment is Shyamalan’s vapid story; perhaps doing triple duty of, writer/producer/director depleted his creative focus. He creates an interesting, inherently creepy premise; people mysteriously killing themselves in fresh and inspired ways, but it stops right there. The terrorist angle is brave, but the intensity should have been turned up and played with more pandemonium inserted into the mass panic. Here, they have some heated arguments, they scream and run around and that’s it. A few times the characters act like complete idiots just to suit the screenplay. Once they figure out that it’s the trees and plants, what do they do? They walk into a grassy field full of trees and tall grass. I did dig the green message of how humanity is getting paid back for poisoning mother earth, but it didn’t go far enough. Perhaps, more than just the plants getting revenge are what the story needed. It felt like it was on the verge of being a wondeful throwback to the 1970's heyday of paranoid thrillers with the mayhem all in their heads, but no such luck. The most over-baked performance of the year belongs to Betty Buckley as a recluse who reluctantly gives shelter to Wahlberg and his crew. Her performance is so needlessly fuming that she apparently seems to be channeling her old co-star from “Carrie”, Piper Laurie as a religious nut who is either driven insane from the killer plants or was there already, I’m still not sure which. I would guess she was there to add color to the film, but her insanity borders close to high camp as she rings as hollow as a tin horn. The only thing missing was her biblical soothsaying and eternal damnation for everyone! The ending is bit weak, it ends as quickly as it began and occurs over a 24-hour period with nothing of permanent consequence taking hold, the characters un-phased by it all. “The Happening” has an interesting premise, but loses steam by the second act. Not the worst thing I’ve seen, the self kills were staged with great cleverness and the score by James Newton Howard evokes creepiness and high tension to wonderful effect, but overall it lacks a satisfying journey and ending. For killer plant flicks I suggest, “Little Shop of Horrors” or the recent “The Ruins”, an unsuspecting gem that sneaks up and blows you away with its unusual premise. Maybe now, M knight will bring us that long-rumored sequel to “Unbreakable” that we all wanted yesterday.