Not Much Happening Here...

Word got out pretty early on this latest M. Night Shyamalan stinker that it was, well, yet another stinker.  I read the script about a year or so before it was released and was shocked to see what Shyamalan was up to, but was even more shocked when it got released.  For those of you that don’t remember, this was the script that even Shyamalan had a hard time shopping.  Anywhere.

The movie starts out with a girl in Central Park stabbing herself through the neck with an incredibly sharp hairpin.  It was as if Shyamalan went out of his way to let you know this wouldn’t be the typical ‘M. Night’ flick; his first with an ‘R’ rating.  Things move quickly to Elliot Moore’s(Mark Wahlberg) science class, where we’re given a few attempts at humor before the ‘fear’ stage is set: there appears to be a terrorist chemical attack on Central Park and the police/news fear how bad the situation may be.  The chemical appears to be getting people to kill themselves.  Yeah.  It’s a chemical which makes you commit suicide….

Let’s be honest, at least the idea is original.  Shyamalan attempts something new by making the audience fearful of someone with a gun; not because they may use it, but because they will use it on themselves.  And if they do that, then the chemical is near you.  Which means you may be next.  Admittedly, that’s a bit freaky. 

Moore snatches up his best friend Julian (John Leguizamo), his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), and Julian’s daughter Jess and they make a break for it via train.  The plan is to head West, away from the attack.  The train loses contact “with everyone” and the operators stop it at a small town in Philly.  From there, it’s essentially every man for himself, with Moore, the science teacher, ultimately having to outwit the situation.

The film is essentially about starting over.  Damage has been done both to the world and to the Moore’s marriage, and as the characters set off to find safety, both Elliot and Alma spend their time together trying to straighten out their lives.  The main problem, obviously, resides in the fact that we don’t care.  There’s a scene where the train they’re on is traveling across a bridge on its way to the next city.  When I saw this, my instant thought was ‘wow, it’d be amazing if this train stops on this bridge, they tell everyone they lost contact, and the rest of the movie deals with the emotional and psychological drama about being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no communication, and not knowing whether to go forward or to go back’.  Think 12 Angry Men without the trial.  But, alas, it doesn’t.  In fact, the ideas that the movie brings up are never truly developed.

I feel like Shyamalan was on the right path here, honestly, but it seems he got a bit distracted somewhere.  It’s as if he continually tries for his films to have some bigger, broader message rather than just focusing on being entertaining.  The movie is certainly watchable, even with lines of dialogue like ‘cheese and crackers’ being uttered in response to something bad happening.  If anything, you watch wanting to know how it ends (and I will say this, the ending is by far the weakest out of all of Shyamalan’s efforts). 

Overall, the movie is a disappointment, but not painful to sit through.  If you’re a fan of Wahlberg, you’ll enjoy him here.  Zooey seems to be acting like someone else throughout the film and I’m not sure what sparked her sudden change in acting styles, though it’s safe to say that hopefully she’ll revert soon.  There are certainly far better horror films out there, and certainly more entertaining Shyamalan flicks. 

I’d honestly like to end this review with an ‘it could be worse’, but, I’m really not sure how.