- PRODUCTION BUDGET: $57 million (source)
UPDATE: Just got an email from a RopeofSilicon reader telling me he believes Night’s cameo in The Happening is as Joey, the guy Alma (Zooey Deschanel) had Tiramisu with. He writes in saying, “We hear his voice when she calls him…” I can’t confirm this, but just thought I would throw that out there.- M. Night Shyamalan’s first film to have an R rating.
- Was originally titled The Green Effect.
I suspect I’ll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky. ~ Roger Ebert, “Chicago Sun-Times”
ONE BAD:
Wahlberg turns in one of his worst performances ever, but then he’s saddled with preposterous scenes (like one where he tries to placate a ficus) and such lame lines as “Could this really be happening?” Funny, I was wondering the same thing myself. ~ Andrea Gronvall, “Chicago Reader”
The problems are documented all over the place. While I don’t believe it is as bad as many are saying it definitely has its flaws, but I will leave you to my review, but I do have one thing I would like to say…
Now, this is
In the final moments of the film we see Elliot (Mark Wahlberg) and Alma (Zooey Deschanel) decide they don’t want to die alone. My first problem with this scene was that Alma brought Jess (the little girl) along with her. This basically equates to her killing this little girl whereas she could have left her in the shack with at least a chance. That was a serious error on the part of Night in my opinion.
So, now we just have Elliot and Alma walking toward each other. We are supposed to think they are going to suddenly kill themselves after becoming infected. In the original cut they actually get back together and hug. Voila, the “happening” ended just as quickly as it began, just like it was said it could throughout the movie. Not much of a payoff.
My ending would have had them walking toward each other, stop with about 10 feet between them, begin walking backwards, repeat something they had said earlier in the movie and then suddenly kill themselves. The little girl would have seen this from the shack and began screaming.
Cut to maybe 24 or 36 hours later. Someone comes upon the shack and finds Jess huddled in a corner. The epidemic has ended, Jess has survived and Alma essentially protected her just like she told Julian (John Leguizamo) she would. From then on the ending plays out just as it did in the actual film, minus, of course, Elliot walking Jess to the school bus.
While my ending doesn’t improve the problems the film suffered from up to that point, it at least offers something of a payoff for the audience.
