Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Out with a whimper

It’s hard to think of another filmmaker in the past 50 years who has created a bigger burden for himself than M. Night Shyamalan.

His first big-budget feature, 1999’s “The Sixth Sense,” gut-punched us with one of the best twist endings in movie history.

And ever since, the air has been slowly seeping out of his balloon, from the serviceable but shrug-worthy “Unbreakable” and “Signs” to the snoozer “The Village” to the downright silly “Lady in the Water.”

His latest, “The Happening,” has been hyped as his return to glory. Much has been made about this being his first R-rated film, and Shyamalan — who wrote, directed and produced — has fed the buzz by dishing no details beyond one eerie trailer, which shows random people committing suicide in various grisly ways.

Promisingly, the first 20 minutes are as hair-raising as anything you’ll see on screen this year. Early one ordinary morning in New York’s Central Park, the city’s denizens are going about their business as the camera closes in on two young women chatting on a park bench.

Suddenly, a distant scream splits the air. Seconds later, everyone around them freezes in place, as if in suspended animation. Then one of the women pulls a long bun needle out of her hair — and slowly, deliberately, jams it deep into her own neck.

Moments later, at a nearby building construction site, the foreman is startled to see his crew workers stepping off the top floor, motionlessly sailing down to wetly splat on the sidewalk.

Soon, reports come in that the phenomenon is swiftly spreading all over the densely populated corridor from Baltimore to Boston, with people abruptly offing themselves in horrific ways (death by power mower, death by zoo lion mauling).

In the eye of the storm is high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), his friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and Julian’s young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez).

They decide to hop a train to try to flee the spreading whatever-it-is. But the phenomenon is too quick, and the train is forced to stop in the middle of Nowhere, Pa. Julian decides that he has to hitch a ride back into the badness and try to reach his wife, who was stuck in New Jersey, so he leaves Jess with his friends and heads out.

Elliot and Alma — who are undergoing some marital strains that matter not one iota to the story — take Jess on a cross-country zigzag in the company of a dwindling number of survivors, searching for a safe haven.

So what’s the big secret? Sorry, no details here, but in general terms — skip the next few lines if you’re spoiler-sensitive — it’s a twist on the idea that our planet is a living organism, humanity has become an infectious disease and, sooner or later, Mother Nature will develop some highly effective antibodies.

Too bad Shyamalan is hobbled by the same old problem — he has the seed of a cool idea but can’t get it to fully bloom.

Once the nature of the threat is revealed, the story has nowhere to go. This becomes painfully clear in a lengthy scene in which Elliot, Alma and Jess meet an old woman (a haggard Betty Buckley) living in an isolated farmhouse who’s three-quarters nuts even before the phenomenon hits.

In a film that barely tops 90 minutes, this superfluous scene feels like just what it is: padding.

It doesn’t help that when the momentum and energy flag, Wahlberg and Deschanel are not up to pushing things along through sheer force of will. Both are interesting actors, but neither is a heavyweight lead.

Shyamalan reminds us once again that he knows how to craft unnerving imagery that sticks in your head. And to be fair, “The Happening” is a big step up from “Lady in the Water.”

Yet that simply shows how low his bar has dropped. With its great buildup but weak payoff, “The Happening” doesn’t have the wowza to dispel the nagging feeling that his long-lost muse is still missing in action.

Rated R for graphic violence. Got a rant or rave about the movies? E-mail cvinch@atpco.com.