Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to watch The Happening and let me tell you that I am so glad that I watched it on DVD rather than wasting time and money at the cinema. The Happening is dreadful, stupid, terrible, spectacularly bad...horrible even. I can't believe that they decided to screen this movie. I sat there not wanting to believe what I was seeing. Yes, it was that bad. Like previous movies by M. Night, it was slow but it was definetely not effective in any way. Let me just start by mentioning the acting. I've seen many of Mark Wahlberg's films and in most of them he managed to deliver above average acting; he was great in The Departed. Now I don't really know what happened to him in this movie. He just whined. I'm thinking that the director forced Wahlberg to act bad on purpose for some artistic reason. The rest of the acting is pretty much bad but not as much as Wahlberg's. All the characters were two-dimensional stick figures scrawled by a 2 year old kid. There were moments where I felt like walking up to the screen and try shaking some life in the characters.
Next comes the story. Its about trees having decided to kill off people. The only reason for their decision that was offered by M. Night was that this was an act of nature and so no one can ever know why this should be happening...hmmm. And there's also a small minor story-line involving the wife hiding a big disturbing secret from her husband. By the end of the movie we learn what this secret is: eating dessert. Seriously? Yes. Seriously?!!? YES!
The rest of the movie just dragged on like a wounded kangaroo on a deserted asphalt-track. I kept waiting for the punch-line or a twist or, at least, a half decent ending. It never happened…
