Great beginning, then it fizzles
M. Night Shyamalan is known for his highly atmospheric melodramas with supernatural overtones. Think &#34;The Sixth Sense,&#34; &#34;The Village,&#34; and &#34;Signs.&#34; The director's newest film, &#34;The Happening&#34; -- his first R-rated effort -- bears his trademark eerie moments, mysterious occurrences, shocks, and outright creepiness.<br /><br />One day, in Central Park, masses of people become disoriented, stop dead in their tracks, and walk backwards. Nearby, at a high-rise construction site, workers plummet to their deaths one after another as they walk off the girders above. Something very unusual is happening, but no one knows what. The first guess is a terrorist attack. After all, it is New York City, and memories of 9/11 are still vivid.<br /><br />High school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is summoned to a meeting of the staff and informed of the happening. Elliot, wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), colleague and friend Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian's daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) decide things will be safer outside the city and board a train to Pennsylvania. As the train makes its way to Philadelphia, cellphone calls to folks on the crowded train reveal that the odd behavior is spreading. Is it terrorism, radioactive leakage from a nuclear power plant, a freak air-based virus?<br /><br />&#34;The Happening&#34; plays very much like an episode of the original &#34;Twilight Zone.&#34; It has that somber, foreboding quality and draws us in immediately with a sensationally effective opening sequence that is both riveting and shocking. Shyamalan incorporates a number of reaction shots of individuals observing the devastating behavior of their friends and co-workers, so that we experience the horror through their eyes. Shyamalan's Everyman is Elliot, who is conveniently a science teacher so that he can cobble together a plausible speculation about what's happening all over the East Coast.<br /><br />Wahlberg does a fine job of being both the average Joe caught in an extraordinary situation and the guy who manages to avoid succumbing to whatever it is that's affecting human beings. Could this be vegetation -- trees, bushes, plants -- forming chemical defenses against man for decades of polluting the planet? Some of his conclusions may not be 100-percent accurate, but they're good enough to keep him, Alma, Jess, and a few others they meet along the way alive when others are dying around them in gruesome, self-inflicted ways.<br /><br />The movie has its problems. From a superb beginning, it bogs down and drags when it should be bristling with suspense. For its R rating, it is surprisingly timid in its visuals. We hear, for example, about horrendous things happening in surrounding areas, but seldom see them. Why? This isn't a radio play. It would have been far more effective to show assorted examples of man's fatal disorientation in montage format, thus enhancing the scope and grimness of the unknown outbreak. Starting with a brutal intensity, &#34;The Happening&#34; eases into a road trip to nowhere, as the ranks of the survivors thin and Elliot and a few others seem destined to be the last living humans on earth.<br /><br />Late in the film, Shyamalan introduces the character of Mrs. Jones (Betty Buckley), a reclusive eccentric bordering on psychotic. Her presence in the film is puzzling. She provides some creepy moments, but they lead to dead ends. There's nothing wrong with a red herring, but it has to misdirect. The Mrs. Jones character is simply a curiosity and fails to provide any new information or advance the plot.<br /><br />Shyamalan likes control. He is credited as writer, director, and one of the film's three producers. So on his shoulders rests the responsibility of fashioning a complete, effective motion picture, not merely a series of clever episodes. The film is reminiscent of those 1950's sci-fi films where some prehistoric beast comes to terrorize and destroy a major city and mankind has to organize quickly to destroy it. The concept worked for over a decade. &#34;The Happening&#34; wants to depart from this formula by making the threat more intangible and thus more frightening. How can you confront an enemy when you don't know what that enemy is? A good idea, but two-thirds of the way through we become tired of wondering what the &#34;thing&#34; is that is causing people to become suicidal.<br /><br />Shyamalan loves The Big Secret -- a major plot point he withholds from viewers until a crucial, climactic point. It worked beautifully in &#34;The Sixth Sense,&#34; far less effectively in &#34;Unbreakable.&#34; &#34;The Happening&#34; falls somewhere between these two films in effectiveness. It needs a wallop of an ending. Instead, it ends in an anticlimactic whimper.
The movie title "The Happening," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.2 from 5518 reviewers. 
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This title falls under the categories of Movies & TV, Studio Specials, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and All Fox Titles. 
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 {"Genre": "Science Fiction & Fantasy", "Format": "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen", "Contributor": "Betty Buckley, Mark Wahlberg, Roberto Lombardi, M. Night Shyamalan, Spencer Breslin, Zooey Deschanel, Ashlyn Sanchez, John LeguizamoBetty Buckley, Mark Wahlberg, Roberto Lombardi, M. Night Shyamalan, Spencer Breslin, Zooey Deschanel, Ashlyn Sanchez, John Leguizamo  See more", "Language": "Unqualified, English (Dolby Surround), Spanish (Dolby Surround), French (Dolby Surround)", "Runtime": "1 hour and 31 minutes", "Aspect Ratio": "1.85:1", "Is Discontinued By Manufacturer": "No", "MPAA rating": "R (Restricted)", "Product Dimensions": "0.55 x 5.08 x 7.75 inches; 2.72 Ounces", "Item model number": "MFR024543532897#VG", "Director": "M. Night Shyamalan", "Media Format": "Multiple Formats, AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen", "Run time": "1 hour and 31 minutes", "Release date": "October 7, 2008", "Actors": "Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Zooey Deschanel, Ashlyn Sanchez", "Dubbed": "Spanish, French", "Subtitles": "Spanish, French, English", "Studio": "20th Century Fox", "Number of discs": "1"}

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