The Happening (2008)

Surely not? Surely even I couldn't like this, M. Night Shyamalan's latest effort, about a 'happening' that suddenly causes people to commit suicide, which has been universally pilloried and castigated by all (it's currently at 19% on Rotten Tomatoes)? Could I? Could I?

Well the short answer is yes, and that brings me onto my rant, which I might as well get out of the way first. Yes, this has its problems, but I fail to see how it has been brutalised as strongly as it has. I personally feel that it has to do with Shyamalan. Here is an Asian-American film-maker daring to write and direct his own movies, based on interesting original personal material and he gets castigated for it. What would you prefer instead? Ten-a-penny Brett Ratboy's helming live-actioner after live-actioner on monstrous budgets, with inflated egos and salaries without a shred of originality anywhere? Being original means being brave and sometimes it doesn't come off as it should do - as here. But I'd rather salute someone for daring to have a go than pillory them for getting it wrong from time to time. More than any of this, you can tell that Shyamalan just loves making films, just loves telling stories and has also clearly understood the vast potential the moving image has for getting messages across to mass audiences. Again, I think the few who dare to speak up about something important (whether that's to them or to us all), rather than tow the line, deserve our applause and admiration. They are a rare breed.

Anyway, the film. As I say, it focuses on a small group (Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez) who are fleeing some kind of natural disaster, which causes people to commit suicide in the American Northwest. Unusually for a Shyamalan film the performances are fairly poor, and Deschanel, so good in All the Real Girls, is perhaps the biggest disappointment, though there are still signs she will go on to great things. Leguizamo is the stand-out, such as there is one, and Wahlberg sleep-walks his way through.

For sure, the story is at times preposterous - it is implied that trees talk to one another through the wind which carries 'the happening' - but this kind of thing is not unheard of in Hollywood films, including those like The Fog and The Mist (review forthcoming) which have been heralded as classics or near-classics. And there's a nice moment of self-effacement as Walhberg's character catches himself talking to a house-plant. Critics just seem to have missed this kind of thing, as they always do with Shyamalan, who clearly has the ability to take the piss out of himself and has a nice, sensitive, ear for humour.

The end is also rushed and unsatisfactory and adds another layer of unfortunate implausibility to the already fairly implausible proceedings, meaning that this is, in sum, a far from perfect film.

All this said, none of it can take away from the fact that I enjoyed it. And that is what I want most of all from a film. Is this not what everyone wants? Great films are great because they are great at entertaining. There's little more to it than that, or there should be, but pretentiousness seems to demand something more for some reason. Okay, this is far from being a great film, but it's still a perfectly good one and I've certainly seen far worse and far worse that has been far better received for little reason other than prejudice or arrogance.

I saw a director's screening with Shyamalan when The Village came out and was very impressed with him as someone who loves making movies, loves telling stories and understands the importance of the reception of moving images. There is no doubt that Shyamalan pushes my cinematic buttons and I don't see any problem with that. Yes, he can get preachy - this is even more so than the Village, but, again, I'd rather be challenged by a film than sleep-walk my way through it. And I happen to think that Shyamalan is right, we should all be thinking more about our relationship to the environment. There are many things about nature, and the way nature works, we still simply don't understand - I was just the other day reading about the sharp increase in the number of young people being diagnosed with allergies which no one can explain. Of course, there will be an explanation, and it won't be as far-fetched as Shyamalan's here, but nature is a mysterious, and unforgiving, mistress and this inevitably opens the way for some interesting and innovative film-making. The Happening makes a lot of Einstein's interesting comment that, if the honeybee was wiped out, humanity would be dead within 4 years. And the honeybee is, in fact, dying, and at alarming rates. Therefore this is something we should be thinking about.

There are some awful moments here, but there are some striking and startling images as well - Shyamalan hasn't forgotten how to shock and how to scare - and the whole thing is perfectly watchable and enjoyable as a novel take on the disaster movie. Shyamalan is someone who has the courage to stand up, speak his mind, and challenge an audience. He fluffs his lines here and stammers through on occasion, but that does not mean he should be subjected to the kind of ridicule which might silence him in the future. Shyamalan will be back and those who demand challenging and innovative film-making, and are even prepared to accept that it may go wrong from time to time, will be all the happier for that and cinema, as a whole, all the richer.

B-