In the past couple of years, the director of Happening, M. Night Shyamalan has received a lot of criticism. Most of it are well deserved since he’s an ego-maniac(like CCFMDS wrote, he played a savior in Lady In The Water) and his movies were getting progressively worse. But his latest flick is surprisingly entertaining with a lot of heart. Even though Shyamalan is known for his twist endings, relationships, mainly love, is his main theme.
Just like most of Shyamalan’s stories, science teacher, Elliott Moore(Mark Wahlberg) is in a rocky relationship with his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel). Soon they discover that people in New York are killing themselves for no apparent reason. To avoid the mysterious phenomenon, the couple decide to go as far as possible from Philadelphia with Elliott’s co worker and friend, Julian(John Leguizamo, his best work) and his daughter Jess(Ashlyn Sanchez). Soon they are running for their lives and trying to figure out what is going on. Along the way, the couple’s relationship is tested.
The movie worked because of the last half. It became interesting when it focused on the main characters and not the people around them. Scenes toward the end are suspenseful and shocking. This movie doesn’t have a twist ending and I give him credit for it. It’s straight storytelling. Although the second half was good, the first half was so-so. The suicide scenes were laughable because it tried too hard to shock the audience. It would have been more effective if he left the scenes to the viewers imagination. This movie didn’t need to be rated R, Shyamalan is good enough to create tension without showing violence. The major problem of the movie is the script, it felt like a stage play. Shyamalan should let someone else write the screenplay but this one isn’t as bad as The Village or Lady In The Water.
Just like Unbreakable, Shyamalan presents a scenario that is hard to believe since it’s so extreme. But once it’s analyzed, it does/can make sense. So far, this is the best movie of the summer because it was an emotional journey. The payoff was great and makes us remember why we used to loved Shyamalan’s earlier movies.
Grade: B
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