I loved the idea of M. Night Shyamalan making his first R-rated movie, hated the piss-poor execution. Loved his premise (a catastrophic and unexplainable event in nature where people on the Eastern seaboard begin to commit mass suicide), hated how it went nowhere. Loved Oscar nominee Mark Walberg (The Departed) and cutie Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous), hated how their roles were wasted. Loved how M. Night was going to shock us with the methods of suicide, hated how that became one sick gimmick thought the movie. And on it goes. To be fair, The Happening wasn't as terrible as Lady in the Water (I still can't get over how he roped poor Paul Giamatti into that mess), but he didn't do himself any favors by trying to make this environmental horror flick into the 21st century's version of The Birds. I am a huge fan of M. Night's work and I even defended him for The Village, but i'm beginning to think that critics might be right about Shyamalan being a one-trick pony who's running out of tricks. The sad part is that he's talented and a better filmmaker than this. I remember when his movies scared the shit out of an audience; when he used tense moments to build on our growing mounting fears. By the time I left The Happening, the question on my mind wasn't how we have taken this planet for granted, but how could Shyamalan continue to keep making movies like this?
*1/2 stars out of ****
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