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Released by: 20th Century Fox
Released on: October 7, 2008.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
Elliott Moore (Mark Wahlburg) is a high school science teacher working away in class one day when he finds out from the school principal that something is happening in New York City. Strange waves of suicidal activity seem to be sweeping over parts of the area causing people to kill themselves. People have been leaping from buildings, cutting themselves, shooting themselves and no one really seems to know why. Elliott and his co-worker, Julian (John Leguizamo) gather up Julian's daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) and Elliott's wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel) and take a train out of town.
The train stops in a small town, the crew tell them that they've lost touch with everyone and aren't willing to go any further. Elliott and Alma agree to take Jess while Julian opts to head back to Princeton in hopes of finding his wife, who hasn't been answering her cell phone. As Elliott, Alma and Jess follow a rag tag group of fellow travelers through the countryside, the waves that were affecting New York City and bigger metropolitan areas seem to be moving in on smaller populated areas as well, meaning that the groups are going to have to get smaller if anyone wants to survive - but why is this happening, and what's the cause?
The first R-rated film from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, The Happening is an interesting idea that starts off strongly but doesn't seem to quite know how to end. The first half of the movie is pretty tense, the scenes of people leaping from New York City buildings playing off of the populace's still fresh memories of 9/11 and carrying a fair amount of impact because of that. The R-rated format allows Shyamalan to play around with some fairly violent material and he does a good job of making sure that the nastier bits in the film actually matter and further the story, rather than just throwing some gore at us for the sake of shock value. The film is well shot and technically quite well made in terms of how everything looks up there on the screen and how it's edited.
In terms of acting, Wahlberg is good in the lead. He's believable enough and he does a fine job with the material. Zooey Deschanel plays up the 'deer in the headlights' look a little too much at times but brings a realistic sense of confusion to the part that helps things out a bit. Leguizamo is good as always and child actor Ashlyn Sanchez is surprisingly very believable in her part. A great supporting performance from Betty Buckley is the highlight of the last half of the film, she steals the show.
Unfortunately, the film doesn't really do much with its ending. A superfluous and completely unnecessary romantic sub-plot hampers things and feels out of place and the open ending of the finale doesn't add anything. While not all movies need a real explanation to be effective, The Happening carries a very heavy handed message with it but fails to really give that message any real grounding. While the movie is moderately entertaining and it does feature some stand out scenes, we're left wondering what the point of it all was…
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Happening is presented in anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen. Judging by the 'Property of 20th Century Fox' bug visible in the lower right corner of the image and the severe compression artifacts visible, we'll assume that this is not representative of final product and therefore no grade will be given to the transfer. Even by test disc standards, this transfer looks awful. It's way too compressed and there are artifacts and macro blocking problems all over the place.
The primary audio mix on this release is an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix though French and Spanish language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are also included as are optional subtitles in English and Spanish. While the rear channels aren't used quite as often as they could have been there is some nice surround activity in a couple of key scenes that helps to build tension and suspense. Dialogue remains clear from start to finish and there aren't any issues with hiss or distortion to complain about. All in all, the audio is fine.
Fox has supplied a pretty decent array of supplemental material here, starting with a collection of deleted scenes. There are four scenes here in total, each with an optional introduction from M. Night Shyamalan that gives the scenes some context. Three of the four are actually extended scenes rather than completely new material but they're still interesting to see.
The Hard Cut (9:01) is a featurette where M. Night Shyamalan and co-producer Jose Rodriguez talk about working in an R-rated environment and what it was like pushing the envelope for the first time rather than playing it safe in a PG environment. Betty Buckley describes the film as 'in your face' while Zooey Deschanel notes that M. Night Shyamalan simply told the story the way that it needed to be told. A few of the other cast members chime in about some of the more violent moments in the film but if the picture were half as shocking and intense as they make it out to be here it would have had people completely freaking out. There is a decent amount of behind the scenes footage in here that makes it worth a look, however.
I Hear You Whispering (4:17) is a featurette with M. Night Shyamalan, his two producers and Betty Buckley that explores the Mrs. Jones character and sheds some interesting insight into why she is the way that she is in the film and which makes some apt comparisons to Deschanel's character.
The Happening - Visions Of The Happening: The Making Of (11:53) is, just like the title implies, a making of featurette that takes us behind the scenes and shows us what it was like on the set of the film. M. Night Shyamalan, the producers, and most of the principal cast members including Wahlberg and Deschanel all show up to talk about the film and their experiences on it. This is fairly promotional feeling but there are a few interesting bits here, particularly when Walberg and Shyamalan discuss their working relationship together. Again, there's some good behind the scenes material in here that makes it worth a look even if it isn't as deep as it thinks it is.
A Day For Night (6:45) shows us what it's like working with M. Night Shyamalan by allowing us to see some fly on the wall some footage of him directing. We see him using storyboards and framing shots and working with his cast. This isn't a bad featurette at all if you're interested in the directing process as it manages to strip away the veneer of glamour and showcase some of the difficulties that can creep into the job.
Elements Of A Scene (10:10) is a look at how the crash scene that takes place in Princeton was created. We see a rough version hashed out on a computer and we see how storyboards were used to choreograph the scene before giving us a peek behind the scenes. Some interviews with the cast, crew and effects technicians round this out and do a good job of explaining how a bit of 'movie magic' was employed to create this memorable moment in the film.
Rounding out the supplements are some slick animated menus, a gag reel (2:51), trailers for Street Kings and Mirrors, and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
The Happening starts off strongly enough but ultimately peters out and winds up under-delivering despite an interesting premise and a few memorable scenes. Fox's disc sounds good and contains some interesting extra features but the transfer on the test disc sent for review flat out sucks.