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'The Happening' - The Bad, The Awful, The Ugly
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by RFP
The Bad, The Awful and the Ugly
"The Happening" ( 2008 ) starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel
In M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, Mark Wahlberg plays a science teacher (Eliot Moore) with a look of perpetual confusion on his face who is married to Zooey Deschanel (Alma Moore), a wide-eyed automaton who staggers through life like an emotionless zombie.
Fortunately, Eliot has plenty of opportunities to put on his perplexed face and Alma has a ton of chances to try not to emote because the entire east coast of America is experiencing some sort of...happening. As Eliot's best friend, Julian (John Leguizamo), says in a horrible piece of dialogue, "This is all just some weird event. We're all gonna be fine."
Just what is Mark Wahlberg so confused about? Some possible questions that might be running through his head:
- Whatever happened to M. Night Shyamalan's talent, the talent that showed such promise in The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and, to a lesser extent, Signs?
- After playing a demonic clown (in Spawn) and the least popular Super Mario brother, how does John Leguizamo still have a career?
- Was I drunk when I agreed to star in this flick? What was I thinking?
The meaning behind The Happening is blatantly apparent, but the execution of Shyamalan's intent is the downfall of this movie. It's the ultimate green movie. We have harmed the Earth so much with our careless pollution that the Earth decides to take revenge.
(Spoilers, I guess. Although the cause of the "happening" is fairly obvious from the beginning)
Because human beings are such reckless savages, all plant life (or certain plants? It's not really clear...) has evolved a defense mechanism in the form of an airborne toxin that only affects people. The invisible chemical essentially makes people freeze in their tracks for a moment before committing suicide in numerous horrifying ways. I could make a joke about the viewer wanting to do the same thing because this movie is so horrible, but that would take away from the very special message that Shyamalan is trying to make.
The lesson I learned was this: I littered this one time and I should kill myself because of it.
The toxin is spread from the plants to humans via the wind, leading to an entire second half of people fleeing...from the wind.
If you're not the Flash or Superman, it would seem like your chances of outrunning the wind would plummet drastically.
Watching Mark Wahlberg and co. sprinting across a field every time the wind shifted, I was reminded of Jaws. The threat remains primarily unseen, visible only from bending grass and rippling weeds (like water) and the ominous strains of music on the soundtrack. It's Jaws for the eco-conscious generation.
One of the worst things about The Happening is the acting, the dialogue, or a combination of the two. Mark Wahlberg's high school science teacher, who tells his classes that "you must have a respectful awe of all of nature" (is that why he lives in the end? The plant life realizes that he respects it?), is a master of the subdued, wooden delivery. Either Wahlberg was taking some acting classes from Shatner or Shyamalan picked the worst possible take to put in the film for each scene.
Now, don't get your panties in a Funky Bunch, I really like Mark Wahlberg. He's usually a pretty great actor who's involved with pretty good films. Everyone is involved a misstep or two.
In this movie, Wahlberg employs a soft, almost restrained voice that sounds completely fake coming from him. Whenever he uses this voice, I like to call him "Pussy Wahlberg." He's the complete opposite of the badass, confident macho man he usually plays. Other Pussy Wahlberg films include The Lovely Bones and I Heart Huckabees. He's also got that delivery going in Boogie Nights, but it seems to work for that film.
I'm all for movies with a message. But this is almost too obvious. Too "this is your brain on drugs" egg sizzling in the frying pan obvious. And it's definitely skewed in a way that makes the makes humans the ultimate bad guy.
The plant life takes revenge against human beings by developing a toxin to attack them. But the toxin doesn't kill people. It makes people kill themselves. It's like all blame is put strictly on the shoulders of humans.
The Verdict.
What a mess. The dialogue, the plot, even the acting. All bad. Even normally reliable actors like Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel can't seem to rise above the mediocrity that Shyamalan put in front of them.
The verdict is: UGLY.
-RFP
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