Dorkgasm Gonzo Is God

The Winds of Change
By
Michael C. Riedlinger
Editor-In-Chief

            What happens when M. Night Shyamalan takes a straight forward approach to making a thriller, adds some gore, and avoids the requisite “twist ending”? He gets compared to Alfred Hitchcock, that’s what. The Happening is one of those films that I entered with such low expectations that I was already grumbling to myself during the opening credits about the film and how I would smash it to bits in this review like some sort of critical Hulk. This, however, is not that review. By the end of the 91 minutes, my only complaint was that the film perpetuates the “Einstein Bee” myth.

            In good thriller fashion, The Happening starts with people dying. Pay enough attention with your ears and eyes and you’ll see and hear exactly what is causing people to go bat-shit crazy and off themselves. The camera lingers on shots of grass and trees, and wind sounds fill the lush audio palette in the background. Once we leave the initial scene of gore, we find Mark Wahlberg teaching a science class in Philadelphia (where just about all Shyamalan’s films are set), reminding students that careful observation is a key component in deductive reasoning (i.e. pay attention to what’s on the screen) and that we don’t always have answers for what happens in the world (i.e. don’t get your hopes up that this movie will have a clean ending).

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            So maybe it isn’t that obvious, and audiences aren’t really that dumb, but can we ever truly know? Enough of my conceit. When news breaks about what is going on, school is canceled and everyone tries to get out of the city. Eliot (Wahlberg) is accompanied on the first train out of Philly by his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel, Tin Man, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), his best friend Julian (John Leguizamo, The Kill Point, Love in the Time of Cholera) and his young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez, Without a Trace). They don’t get very far when the rest of the Northeastern U.S. gets hit by crazy juice and the train stops in the middle of nowhere. After everyone detrains and hits the local diner, the film lets us ponder what might be going on. News reporters and diner patrons alike throw around some crazy theories. The final consensus seems to be that it doesn’t matter; everyone needs to get out of the area of danger as quickly as possible.

            Julian leaves his daughter with Elliot and the flighty Alma to go look for his wife. It’s a move that tells us he’s dead for sure, but, like Hitchcock, Shyamalan pulls it off because it makes sense. After Julian gets in the Jeep headed for Princeton, we get a close-up on a tear in the roof and we know that everyone in that vehicle is absolutely doomed. As the rest of the cast wanders about the countryside, we are horrified not by what we do not know, but by what we see coming before the characters realize it. Like a master, Shyamalan builds tension smoothly and succinctly. By the time Elliot and his group realize it’s the plants releasing an anti-human toxin and happen upon a seemingly abandoned farm house, we know what the event is and when it will end, and the director keeps you biting your nails worrying about whether the characters can survive that long or not.

            If you like a smart thriller, The Happening is right up your alley. The performances are only average, but the suspense Shyamalan creates is delectable. This film is our generations The Birds, even if it is judged by some based on little more than the director’s reputation. If you can’t handle thinking a little this Father’s Day, take your dad to see The Incredible Hulk instead, but if he has movies like Vertigo or North by Northwest on the shelf at home, you can’t miss with The Happening.