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This Shouldn't Be Happening
By Philip Friedman Published June 13, 2008
M. Night is like the directorial equivalent of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. His first movie showed the most maturity, the greatest insight, the most humanity and mysteriously he's been steadily regressing even since.
This article is divided into two parts: a page free of The Happening spoilers dealing with M. Night Shymalan, his past movies and a spoiler-filled analysis of The Happening. If you don't want to read anything about the movie, don't click to the second page. [The second part will be posted later]
How the mighty have fallen. Following the incredible success of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan had two Oscar nominations to his name. The Academy nominated the movie for six awards in total and moviegoers worldwide rewarded the movie with over $670 million dollars in box office. For his first major movie, it was a tremendous feat. Also, easily forgotten was that Stuart Little, which he wrote, ended up grossing over $140 million domestically. Not a bad way to cap off his arrival in Hollywood.
I've heard many people claim that they saw the ending of Sixth Sense coming and therefore the movie failed. I feel this is a weak criticism and ultimately helped typecast Night as to the "twist" guy (as demonstrated on Robot Chicken). I was surprised and thought the ending was great. I don't think Night gets enough credit for the movie. I believe the movie work in its entirety. Night managed to subtly build a powerful relationship between Dr. Crowe (Willis) and Cole (Haley Joel Osment). While there is so much focus on the surprising last minutes, many might have forgotten the emotional goodbye between Cole and Dr. Crowe that is a great conclusion on its own. The final ending doesn't detract from that; it makes the rest of movie even more powerful.
However, perhaps my memory has faded. I've watched the movie only once on opening night, but I recently re-watched the last twenty minutes on cable and felt my initial impression still held. It seemed like Night had an ability to honestly portray emotions and relationships. It's too bad he hasn't been able to properly finish a movie since.
M. Night is like the directorial equivalent of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. His first movie showed the most maturity, the greatest insight, the most humanity and mysteriously he's been steadily regressing even since.
Unbreakable felt incomplete, like someone who pulled an all-nighter on a final paper and had five minutes to write the conclusion. I didn't dislike it, but there wasn't much to go off.
Signs was a great scary movie, but the ending absolutely ruined it. It did deliver several amazing moments: sitting in a darkened theater hearing every stalk of corn bristle around me - waiting in anticipation - and the audience's collective jump when Mel Gibson takes a look under the crack of the door. That movie delivered adrenaline, but the story ultimately badly misfired. It was probably five minutes away from being Night's second great movie.
The Village began to display Night's apparent antipathy towards society and his inability to cut himself out of the movie. The box office success of Signs must have gone to his head. The Village was well filmed and had its scary moments, but the premise was sloppy and Night compounded the problem by needing to explain it in person. If the director has to get in front of the camera and explain the movie, there's a problem. Good try, but poor execution.
Lady in the Water takes all the problems of his previous movies combines them and then builds upon them. Instead of a cameo or a monologue, Night decided to cast himself as the savior of the world. This might be forgivable for an egotistical first-time writer who is only entertaining himself. Save it for writing class. The audience is paying good money to see the movie, and I don't think anyone wanted to watch a juvenile power trip. The story was a complete mess, Night relies heavily on a character to explain every plot detail and (the thing that got to me the most) he of course has to kill off the critic.
The main saving grace of every Night movie has been a strong leading actor. Night owes a lot to Willis, Gibson and Howard. Even for Lady in the Water, Paul Giamatti does his best to deliver. Yet, this saving grace finally runs out though with The Happening…
How the mighty have fallen. Following the incredible success of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan had two Oscar nominations to his name. The Academy nominated the movie for six awards in total and moviegoers worldwide rewarded the movie with over $670 million dollars in box office. For his first major movie, it was a tremendous feat. Also, easily forgotten was that Stuart Little, which he wrote, ended up grossing over $140 million domestically. Not a bad way to cap off his arrival in Hollywood.
I've heard many people claim that they saw the ending of Sixth Sense coming and therefore the movie failed. I feel this is a weak criticism and ultimately helped typecast Night as to the "twist" guy (as demonstrated on Robot Chicken). I was surprised and thought the ending was great. I don't think Night gets enough credit for the movie. I believe the movie work in its entirety. Night managed to subtly build a powerful relationship between Dr. Crowe (Willis) and Cole (Haley Joel Osment). While there is so much focus on the surprising last minutes, many might have forgotten the emotional goodbye between Cole and Dr. Crowe that is a great conclusion on its own. The final ending doesn't detract from that; it makes the rest of movie even more powerful.
However, perhaps my memory has faded. I've watched the movie only once on opening night, but I recently re-watched the last twenty minutes on cable and felt my initial impression still held. It seemed like Night had an ability to honestly portray emotions and relationships. It's too bad he hasn't been able to properly finish a movie since.
M. Night is like the directorial equivalent of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. His first movie showed the most maturity, the greatest insight, the most humanity and mysteriously he's been steadily regressing even since.
Unbreakable felt incomplete, like someone who pulled an all-nighter on a final paper and had five minutes to write the conclusion. I didn't dislike it, but there wasn't much to go off.
Signs was a great scary movie, but the ending absolutely ruined it. It did deliver several amazing moments: sitting in a darkened theater hearing every stalk of corn bristle around me - waiting in anticipation - and the audience's collective jump when Mel Gibson takes a look under the crack of the door. That movie delivered adrenaline, but the story ultimately badly misfired. It was probably five minutes away from being Night's second great movie.
The Village began to display Night's apparent antipathy towards society and his inability to cut himself out of the movie. The box office success of Signs must have gone to his head. The Village was well filmed and had its scary moments, but the premise was sloppy and Night compounded the problem by needing to explain it in person. If the director has to get in front of the camera and explain the movie, there's a problem. Good try, but poor execution.
Lady in the Water takes all the problems of his previous movies combines them and then builds upon them. Instead of a cameo or a monologue, Night decided to cast himself as the savior of the world. This might be forgivable for an egotistical first-time writer who is only entertaining himself. Save it for writing class. The audience is paying good money to see the movie, and I don't think anyone wanted to watch a juvenile power trip. The story was a complete mess, Night relies heavily on a character to explain every plot detail and (the thing that got to me the most) he of course has to kill off the critic.
The main saving grace of every Night movie has been a strong leading actor. Night owes a lot to Willis, Gibson and Howard. Even for Lady in the Water, Paul Giamatti does his best to deliver. Yet, this saving grace finally runs out though with The Happening…
