It all starts in Central Park. People begin speaking gibberish, repeating themselves. Then they stop in their tracks and slowly walk backward. After that, it gets ugly - the less said about that the better. This sequence of events, which concludes with an uncomfortably familiar scene at a construction site, provides the chilling opening to "The Happening", the latest puzzling and puzzle-y thriller from famously secretive writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. As the posters proclaim, this film marks the twist-meister's first foray into R-rated territory, and it's clear from these disturbing opening images that he means to take advantage of that freedom. So then, why does what's happening in "The Happening" feel so goofy?
"The Happening" is littered with Mr. Shyamalan's now-trademark techniques: spooky atmospherics, portentous pacing and stiff dialogue that exists in the service of the plot, rather than coming from the characters. While all this worked to great effect in his 1999's break-out "The Sixth Sense", it's proven to have diminishing returns over the years ("Signs", "The Village", sigh). In the Shyamalan canon, "The Happening" most resembles his 2000 superhero rumination, "Unbreakable". Again, the writer-director comes up with a good concept but executes it with such stilted self-importance that it's next to impossible to get caught up in the film. Like the Bruce Willis and Robin Wright-Penn characters in that earlier film, you just want to grab the people in "The Happening" and shake them, screaming "say something!" There's a particularly frustrating scene late in the film involving an old woman in a farmhouse and way much unresponsiveness.
In "The Happening", Mark Wahlberg stars as Elliot Moore, a Philadelphia high school science teacher who - after word of the opening events hits the City of Brotherly Love - hits the road with his annoyingly distracted wife (Zooey Deschanel, wide-eyed as ever). Also along for the ride are a fellow teacher (John Leguizamo, doing some nicely grounded work) and his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez). The film follows their quest to find safety from a plague that appears to be able to strike anywhere without warning. Is it terrorists? Some kind of airborne toxin? Could it be on the wind itself? There are plenty of explanations proffered, and lots of less-than-subtle messaging along the way.
Mr. Shyamalan is clearly aiming to evoke the nature-strikes-back theme of films like "The Birds" and the atomic age classics of the 50s and 60s. For a time, he achieves a kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibe. Without a doubt, this man is a talented filmmaker with a good mind for concepts, but his execution needs work. The one truly great moment in the film finds Elliot talking to an ominous-looking houseplant. It's a moment of levity and truth in a film that otherwise feels crafted to within an inch of its life, and Mr. Wahlberg (who flounders in the role of an Everyman) hits it just right.
Happily, I can say that Mr. Shyamalan dispenses with his typical "twist ending", in favor of one more fitting to the story. As a result, "The Happening" doesn't feel like a cheat (like so many of the filmmaker's previous efforts). It does however, much like those same films, feel like a disappointment. "The Happening's" one gimmick - people start offing themselves in evermore grisly ways - gets old after a while. And the downright resourcefulness of some of the victims (when all else fails, use a nearby lawnmower) is clearly for shock-value alone. In the end, ironically, maybe a twist would have helped "The Happening". Now there's a twist even Mr. Shyamalan would love.
