Alright, so, without giving too much away, an airborne virus of some sort goes around infecting people and causes them to go crazy and kill themselves. The race to avoid infection begins.
Let me start by saying that I like Mark Wahlberg and I can’t think of anything he’s ever been in, that I didn’t like. Having said that though, I’ll admit that he’s really not a very good actor. He just never really seems all that believable. But, like I said, I still like him, and I’m willing to overlook his sub par acting chops. And Zooey Deschanel (who’s looks WAY mo’ betta blonde) — same thing. I don’t think she’s actually as good as I always think she is. But there’s something about her that I like. She just has this, kind of, indescribable appeal to her.
That seemed to be a running theme with The Happening. It looked good. It had all the right parts to be good. But in the end, it was just okay. And I think the problem was in the execution. M. Night Shama-lama-ding-dong just seemed to phone this one in. It’s a given that Marky Mark and Zooey Mmm-schanel aren’t Academy Award-winning actors, but it’s the director’s job to get everything out of them that he can. Grab ‘em by the collar and shake it out of ‘em if he needs to. But, he didn’t. He just let them be mediocre. And so, that’s how it was.
This makes me think one thing. “M.” has some great ideas. All of his movies have that same potential. He’s also great at visually creating certain moods on screen. But maybe he just isn’t good at directing PEOPLE. I mean, at first, he didn’t HAVE to. Bruce Willis (twice), Mel Gibson, even Joaquin Phoenix — all their movies were fine. But, when the best he had to work with was Paul Giamatti (Lady in the Water) and Wahlberg, there was something missing. Alot was left on the table. And I believe it was because the director, the leader, didn’t challenge his people.
It’s too bad. Because of that, The Happening was “okay”. Maybe, “alright”. But not “great”. And it COULD’VE been.
