THE HAPPENING
US, 2008, 91 minutes, Colour.
Mark Wahlberg, Zoe Deschanelle, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin.
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Divided opinions on this one. This review will be very favourable.
Most of the objections to the film came because of critical and popular expectations of the writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan. Having been most successful in 1999 with The Sixth Sense, he was expected to make films which were equally as effective. But, this has not been the case. On the other hand, he has been able to create eerie atmosphere in a number of films: Unbreakable, Signs, The Village and Lady in the Water. Had Shyamalan’s name not been on the credits, The Happening might have been better received and reviewed.
It is a brief 90 minute film which relies on a sense of unease and uncertainty as to what is happening in the north eastern states of the US. The credits show movements of wind and cloud. The opening shows people in Central Park in New York becoming confused, transfixed, bewildered and a number killing themselves. While we wonder why this is happening this is not so important right throughout the film as to identify with the characters trying to deal simply with what is happening. Television newscasts speculate on why this lethal event is happening: nature, human behaviour, something transcendent?
After New York, the action moves to Philadelphia (Shyamalan’s city which he always includes in his films). Mark Wahlberg is Elliot, a science teacher, who focuses on observation and scientific method to interpret the world. When classes are abandoned, he joins his strange, and emotionally estranged, wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel in an odd, detached performance of a character afraid of revealing emotions). They and his friend, Julian (John Leguizamo) and his daughter Jess, leave the city by train but find themselves stranded in the Pennsylvania countryside with people trying to flee the deadly toxin, whatever it is. Elliot tries his scientific method to work out what to do but this happening is beyond science and his abilities.
There are some alarming sequences as people flee and as they discover the dead along the roads. This kind of fear-inducing atmosphere is what Shyamalan does best.
Finally, the film focuses on Alma and Elliot and Jess and their attempts to survive.
It’s not the greatest film, of course, but it does achieve what it sets out to do, create an alarming happening.
1.The impact of the film? Atmosphere? Mystery?
2.The work of the director, expectations?
3.New York City settings, Central Park, the streets? Philadelphia, locations, the railway station, the train line? The Pennsylvania and New Jersey countryside? The blend of realism and the eerie? The atmospheric score?
4.The title, the event, the facts as they were presented, as people experienced them? Theories, explanations? Lack of explanation?
5.The possibilities: disruption of nature, human interference, a combination of these? The transcendent?
6.The credits and the ominous sky, the clouds, the two girls on the bench in New York City? People stammering, people not able to coordinate, falling? Stopping and standing? The cars? In the park, in the street? The policeman, shooting himself, the falling gun, others picking it up, killing themselves?
7.The TV, the information, the theories and explanations, people’s reactions?
8.Elliott, in class, with the students, the issue of the bees disappearing, the role of science, his rules of scientific observation and his later application of them? His interactions with the students, humour? The staff, the talk from the principal? Everybody going home? Elliott and Julian, their friendship, discussions, Elliotts home problems, coping? Alma and her tension? Not showing her emotions? The background of her having the coffee with Joe, the audience knowing, Elliott not knowing?
9.Julian and his daughter, their mother buying the gift, her decision to go to Princeton, their getting the train, Julian entrusting his daughter to Elliott and Alma? His decision to go to New Jersey for his wife? The woman later with the phone call from Princeton, her daughter, hearing her daughter’s death over the phone?
10.Elliott and Alma, in the train, the mystery, stopping in the countryside, loss of contact, people getting lifts, selfish people and their driving off? Julian and his going to Princeton? Elliott and Alma with Jess, the gardener, his wife, going to the plants, his theories about plants and talking to them? Driving through the countryside? Stopping, the crossroads, the cars coming down the roads, everybody talking about the deaths? The soldier, taking charge, his death?
11.The virus or whatever was being carried by the plants, the ominous winds? The group’s running, going into smaller groups? Encountering deaths, the people hanging from the trees in the street?
12.Going to the farm, the two boys with Jess and with Elliott and Alma, the farmer inside, shooting the boys? The effect on Elliott and the group?
13.Going to Mrs Jones’s farm, her not having electricity, no contact, not knowing what was going on, her sternness, the welcome, the meal, hitting Jess, her personal grief, their going to the room, Elliott and his finding the doll, Mrs Jones’s anger? Elliott in the house, Alma and Jess going to the slave house? Their being able to hear everything? Mrs Jones affected, her death?
14.Elliott and Alma risking everything, going outside, the wind stopping?
15.Three months later, Alma pregnant, reunited with Elliott? Hopes? Jess going to school?
16.The transition to Paris, the same pattern again, the people in the park, the new outbreak?
