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 Entering this film baring in mind the plethora of negative press surrounding THE HAPPENING, my expectations were already below sea level; however I, at the very least, tried to remain a tiny bit optimistic. Shyamalan's credibility in the past few years has waned considerably, his work being described as self-indulgent (and rightfully so), with his only ace in the hole being that he usually has a corker of an ending lined up. The main complaint across the board, which I also share, is that the mystery to this ludicrous plot is revealed 30 minutes in and so any hope of a sucker-punch ending quickly dissipates, leaving us, unsuspecting victims in this tragic excuse of a film, enduring some of the worst dialogue committed to screen in quite some time.
The abuse doesn't stop there. After a fairly impressive five minutes, tension and mystery built up with multiple suicides setting the scene of dread, the second one of the main character's mutters a line, it's downhill from there, harsh, but unfortunately true. The characters in this film are written with an offbeat kookiness that really negates any attempt at drama. Add to that the acting overall is borderline embarrassing and often, much like the majority of the film, unintentionally hilarious, and you have a film that's easy to see why it met with so much criticism. People everywhere are killing themselves for no reason whatsoever. After some flailing about, a few teary moments and ample shocked expression followed by some more flailing, theories arise that it's a possible terrorist attack, or something to do with the bees disappearing (are we suddenly watching Doctor Who!?). I could continue, but I'd only spoil the, ahem, surprise reveal 30 mins in... Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel are equally miscast, delivering their lines with about as much charisma as a dead goldfish, they really are atrocious here. Pity, cos I loved Mark in THE DEPARTED! Their dialogue is cringe worthy at best and their relationship fails to generate any sort of believability or likeability. The rest of the cast all contribute to the poor quality of the film, but most of the failure of the film falls on Shyamalan - the acting is only as good as the script and directing permit. There a few scenes where tension is nicely hyped and the director is most effective with these moments, but they are either dampened by dreadful acting or bizarre resolves. The plot plays out like a bad joke at times and the viewing I attended had several people howling with disbelief. One set-piece which will no doubt end up in a future Scary Movie spoof has our leads outrunning...the wind. What's even more amusing is the fact the wind, in its howling glory, only plays a part in this act of terror once one of the characters conclude it has to be the wind. Cue scary wind noises... Overall, an apocalyptic tale with very little actually happening that provides moments of comedy where it doesn't mean to. Definitely then a DVD flick to catch if you'd like to get some mates around, open a few cans and laugh at just how dumb this movie happens to be.
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