Ok, The Happening.
With each new film, my faith that M. Night has another great movie in him diminishes like breath on a mirror. It's just about gone. O' Shyamalon, thy golden touch has been sullied, the muse a friend no more.
I knew, as I put the dvd in the player, there was at least an eighty percent chance I was going to strongly dislike this movie. We were great together, M. Night and me, but somewhere along the way, we grew apart. Somewhere around the release of The Village, as I recall.
The Sixth Sense came out of nowhere, held me firm in its grip, and filled me with endless glee at the prospect of more films with his signature. If I hadn't known it was his first, I would have guessed it was his fourth or fifth. It was a mature offering and hit all the right beats.
Unbreakable was just as good, but more ambitious; one of the best super hero movies ever. It never really found it's niche, mainly because it wasn't based on an existing super hero. After watching it the first time, I envisioned him going on to make other films in the genre, like a Batman or X Men installment. Didn't happen and, at this point, I don't believe it ever will.
Signs was next, a great film in my estimation, maybe his best, but to many, the first chink in the armor. The element of suspense never wanes with each viewing. I'll have to watch it again soon.
Then The Village. When I saw the trailer for it, I was as almost as excited as I was when I saw the one for Return Of The Jedi as a kid. But M. Night-- in a case self sabotage, I suspect--went ahead and embarrassed himself, his cast and crew, and his audience. The great Roger Ebert gave the movie one star and demolished it so thoroughly I knew there wasn't much hope it was going to be as good as the trailer indicated.
All M. Night had to do -- and this is so simple and obvious -- was make it so there really were demonic creatures stalking the woods at night. Oh, it would have been magnificent! He had the exact tone, the exact atmosphere, intact: all he had to do was come through with the script. But he got a little too cute, a little too crafty for his own good and it bit him in his ass.
I watched The Lady In The Water incrementally when it was playing on HBO one month (after hearing it was perhaps worse than The Village, I begged off seeing it for as long as I could, which meant, and this is sad to say, it wasn't even rental worthy -- Ouch!). What I saw was so foul and offensive, I decided not to attempt watching it in its entirety; I was afraid I'd have a stroke.
Ebert gave The Happening three stars, but noted he felt he was probably going to be in the minority. Not particularly encouraging, but I guessed it would at least be rental worthy. And, you know, it was, which is not to say it was good, because it wasn't. But it wasn't terrible, either. In fact, there were elements that bordered on being pretty good. Let's break it down.
Premise: Not bad. Plants rebelling against humans. Sure, why not. 8.0
Script: choppy, uncomfortable, lazy. 4.5
Casting: Mark Wahlberg killed in Boogie Nights. No hyperbole, here: he's a fine actor. Zooey
Deschanel is also a fine actor; so is John Leguzamo. The little girl, though, sucked.
She was a dry cryer and talk about wooden delivery! But, she was adorable. So, overall, pretty good job casting. 8.3
Acting: (see Script) I suspect Shayamalan may have played a hand in the poor acting, kind of like
the way George Lucas made it impossible for his actors to give natural, emotive,performances in his Star Wars films for the sake of stylization . But the acting was meant to pay homage the serial space operas of long ago. M. Night wasn't paying homage to anything but bad taste if he shaped the performances. And you know he did: he wrote and directed the damned movie! Saying that, I think Wahlberg was out of his element playing a soft elementary school teacher. Still, it's hard to blame the actors; I think they did the best they could withmaterial, but the game was rigged, they were destined to fail. 5.4
Score: Probably the best thing about the movie. 8.9
Directing: Oh, just shitty! You break my heart, M. Night. Where did the glory go? 3.0
I still believe M. Night can redeem himself, though it's looking more and more unlikely. The Happening should have been called The (Not) Happening. You may not believe this, but I'm capable of being even more clever than that.
Spielberg's War Of The Worlds is a similar film, but it's much, much, better. It didn't do well with the fans and critics, mostly because of Tom Cruise's couch antics, but I think in time it will be appreciated for what it is: a superb film! M. Night should watch it again and again. And so should you, because you were probably one of the rabble who dismissed it out of hand. M. Night needs to be put back on the path to glory.
--
When five o'clock hit today, I shut down my computer, gathered my stuff, and poked my head into the other room to say goodbye to its occupants, Marcy and Therese. Marcy asked me if I could stay a couple of more minutes. She had some documents that needed to be recorded in Boston and wanted to give them to me before I left so that I could take them to record in the morning before I headed to Andover.
I had a feeling she was going to do that. I hung around for another twenty minutes as she wrote checks and gathered paperwork. Between leaving late, getting gas, and stopping at the grocery store, I didn't get home until six thirty.
Listening to a lot of Marnie Stern. I love her new record. It's so exultant and joyous and rocking, I want everyone to listen to her. I know that won't happen, though. As great a musician as she is, she's not very accessible.
The night's agenda:
Watch an eppy of The Wire.
Read some Ruckley
Play some music (need to start rehearsing-- gig next saturday at P.A's)
meditate
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