Let's just stay ahead of the wind!

The Happening

(2009)

Given the critical mauling this received, The Happening is marginally better than I expected. But Mark Wahlberg is as shoe-in for a Golden Razzie. Utterly miscast, he's the empty centre of the film, and is particularly laughable when playing the gifted school teacher at the outset.

The rest of the actors don't fare much better; thankfully John Leguizamo isn't in it that much, while the lovely Zooey Deschanel is unfortunately cast against her strengths. It's left to Betty Buckley to pull a giddy OTT performance out of a hat in the final act.

As for Shyamalan, at points he succeeds in approximating the apocalyptic Wyndham-esque vibe he seems to be struggling for, and certain set pieces are pretty good, but he seems much less sure of himself in pacing and tone than in his previous work (whatever their respective merits, you could be fairly clear he was achieving what he set out to in those).

The first half hour or so is particularly rocky. He's chosen strong leads in the past, and that's helped see some of his scripts through patches where they might otherwise have lapsed into being derisively laughable. Here he has no such luck. This wants to be up there with The Birds, but it's much too hit and miss (for the latter see the outrunning the wind scene).

**1/2

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