We are screwing up the planet and Mother Nature is teaching us a lesson the hard way. This is what M.N.Shyamalan’s latest offering ‘THE HAPPENING’ says with the help of an event happning in north eastern part of the U.S.A. We travel along with Mark Wahlberg and the blue-eyed Zooey Dascanel as they try to survive this happening event.
The movie didn’t disappoint me at all. Surprised? Me too. After all those bad reviews that I read for a week … I went to the movie thinking that the movie would be bad. No… the movie is not bad as everyone is claiming. In fact I thought it was actually good. An event is happening in which everyone acts weirdly and eventually commits violent (but innovative) suicides!!!
Mark and his wife Zooey along with their friend and his daughter Jessie, leaves Philadelphia. The event then happens in Philadelphia too and lot of other places in North eastern USA. Situations force them to form groups in the middle of no where with a bunch of other survivors, take care of Jessie and survive this happening event.
The movie has some cool scenes throughout the movie. This is M.N.Shyamalan’s first R rated flick and he has made it a real R rated movie. The movie has some violently innovative suicides scenes. They give you the necessary thrills and chills. There are scenes that startle you even though you know that it is going to happen. The movie was good for most parts.
Mark and Zooey both were not good in the opening scenes but they became better as the movie progressed. Their performances in the later part of the movie took care of the some dull moments in the movie. Mrs. Jones’ character looks unnecessary but some scenes involving her are outstanding. Jessie, the little girl was good. The relationship between the lead pair was cute. Watch out for the scene where Zooey is about to deliver the news that she’s pregnant… this is what the first part of the movie lacked. The places where performances were down… the script took care and vise-versa.
Tak Fujimoto [cinematography] was wonderful. James Newton Howard’s musical score was good. Visual effects were good and most actors performed their role very well.
This review wouldn’t be over without talking about M.N.Shyamalan. The writer- director once again comes up with his kind of a movie. Visually the film is outstanding. The movie has enough thrills to keep you engaged. Regarding the plot, yes it was ridiculous. Algae release toxins to kill some predators in the ocean and that concept is brought to land. MNS in all his movies takes you into a world of his own. If you go with him you’ll enjoy else you would be laughing at the plot. Innovativeness is found all around the movie whether the suicides or the chase sequences between humans and winds or Mark talking to trees.
You can see MNS’ creativeness in many places. Like the movie Unbreakable in which when Bruce Willis finds out that he is the person who is supposed to maintain our planet taking care of the scum… a bad guy walks through a door. The board saying “MAINTANENCE” found on the door is focused. Similarly in this movie… when Mark starts believing the plant theory and thinks that we screwed up the planet, we come across a board near a model home with the words “YOU DESREVE THIS”. Genius. I wonder how can someone who concentrates on such details failed to see the mic inside the frame on more than one occasion. I was disappointed with that.
On the minus side, the plot and the pace of the movie will get on your nerves if you dont give a damn about what happens in the screen. The reason given for the happening event was also weird. But they do say that there are forces beyond our understanding. so ok why shouldn’t mother nature torture us??
This movie is not The sixth sense or signs or unbreakable. But this is good in its own way. You can’t make a classic every time you make a movie. The biggest problem of MNS is that 6th sense was his first movie. That is one of the best movie that you’ll get to see hence people expect movies of the same stature from him on his every outing which is the next best thing to impossible. His career is not perishing. When some one makes his own way and is stuck up on originality he is bound to have some ups and downs in his career.
THIS MOVIE IS DEFINTELY NOT A PART OF THE DOWNS OF HIS CAREER.
RATING : 7/10
P.S: The movie ends with the event beginning to happen in some other country. May be he should make a sequel called ‘the happening after the first happening happened’. The title may not make any sense but hey I am just trying to use the various forms of the word HAPPEN as much as possible in this review!!!
- V
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