The Happening
Something strange is affecting people on the east coast and making them kill themselves.
Amazing.
I loved this movie. Mark Wahlberg was great, as were Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo.
This film had one of the most disturbing and beautiful pieces of mise-en-scène that I think I will ever witness theatrically. At the beginning of the film, you see people beginning to just randomly and suddenly kill themselves. At a construction site, workers begin just walking/jumping off the edge of a multi-story building and plummet to the ground. The low upward angle of bodies falling and more people continuing to walk off the edge of the building is something that has captivated me. I’ve never seen anything like that and don’t think I ever will again.
Now many people complain about the plot, or lack thereof. I will argue, though that this film was bursting with plot. It was well constructed and the timing was brilliant. There were tons of great points in the film where you were lulled down and then something jerked you back up. Even when you knew these moments were coming, they were still great.
Some say that, due to the ending, this is a propaganda piece from M. Night. I completely disagree. I could be wrong, I don’t know M. Night personally, but I think it was smarter than a “green plug”. My opinion is that M. Night took a current social situation and crafted that into his film to highten intensity and realism. I think that he used the public fear of global warming and pollution to his advantage, not necessarily as social commentary, but to invoke more fear in the film.
Think of it as someone making a film right after 9-11 that had to do with terrorism. This filmmaker might not have any personal politics, but they want to use that situation to heighten emotion during the film. I thought M. Night did a fantastic job of this.
Overall, great great film. I can’t wait for this on DVD.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:20 am
never saw this one either bro!!! …. 4 life!
October 16th, 2008 at 11:06 am
for those that don’t know it’s pronounced “MEES-on-sawn”
also, since it’s the trees, is m. night saying Ents are a real possibility?