Review of The Happening (2008) by Chads. — 13 Jun 2008

Say what you will about "The Village" and "The Lady in the Water", the former- an allegory about the scare tactics of Homeland Security, and the latter- a contemporary fairy tale set in the city, as being dippy, pedantic, and somewhat sanctimonious; neither film, however, could be accused of being uninspired.

The filmmaker took chances. Critics and audiences alike, ridiculed him for it. Now comes "The Happening", a film so shockingly formulaic, one is tempted to call this melding of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" and the Sparks' song "Don't Turn Your Back on Mother Earth"(made popular by Depeche Mode), a piece of confrontational art.

For the first time, the filmmaker acknowledges, in a very cynical fashion, that the American moviegoing public have reduced attention spans with a preference for spectacle over narrative. The filmmaker purposely made a dumb movie because he thinks that movie audiences were too ignorant to get his last two pictures.

That's why the dialogue is worse than perfunctory, it's practically post-literate. "The Happening" plays like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" directed by Ed Wood. Mark Wahlberg is off his game.

Zooey Deschanel is off her game. There's very little indication that either actor received much instruction from their director. Wahlberg, in particular, is terrible; his character, sort of imbecilic.

Elliot doesn't want to be alone, but being with Alma(Deschanel) means risking exposure to the aerial spores(or whatever), therefore killing her. A child is with them. Maybe the filmmaker is going for the child-killing trifecta.