ZEE'S REVIEWS

14th Dec 2008
The Happening (2008)

The Happening is a compelling movie let down by a lame ending. The premise is arresting - people start dying suddenly and violently, en masse, with no apparent cause - and the eventual explanation is original and thought-provoking.

Mark Wahlberg is likeable and convincing as the mild-mannered science teacher, Elliot Moore, and Zooey Deschanel is fascinating to watch as Alma Moore, his slightly eccentric wife. Together with their friend Julian and his young daughter Jess, they try to outrun the trail of death, journeying through a landscape of escalating threat, pursued by a menace they have no way to fight.

The characters are sympathetic, the mystery is intriguing, and director M Night Shyamalan is good at delivering both creepy tension and sharp shocks. Unfortunately, the deus ex machina at the climax undercuts all this. The Happening is a flawed movie that could have been much better if the ending had been either more clever or more uncompromising. Ninety percent of this movie is worth watching, which makes the other ten percent especially disappointing.