The film's soundtrack is certainly more worthy of flavoring up this story's engagement value than plenty of areas in storytelling itself, and it's shame that that's the case, but at least there is something going to doing justice to a premise of limited potential. Perhaps the best thing in this film is James Newton Howard's score, and I'm sure that sounds pretty harsh, but really, Howard sets no low bar here with his surprisingly highly inspired musical efforts, infusing an intensely subtle minimalism into stylish, often unconventional and perhaps consistently realized compositions, whose very atmospheric flavor is both nifty on a musical level and worthy as a storytelling compliment. I'm not saying that this film is so bland that it doesn't have a whole lot to promote, but this project's other big marketing move was to emphasize that this is Shyamalan's first R-rated film (His films have gotten very grown-up ever since that adorable little tale about a little boy who sees terrified, brutally dead people), so, needless to say, there's not a whole lot to talk about here, at least when it comes to strengths, which are still present to some extent.
I can think of some people who would say that there just has to be some kind of a lame excuse surrounding Mark Wahlberg's being attached to this project, but really, Shyamalan was going to have to get some big-named, somewhat respected talent in this film in order to sell it. if were as cheesy as, I don't know, Neal Morse when he writes a song for Transatlantic or, well, anyone), I just got confused because this film stars Marky Mark, one of the original black wannabe honkies, which is ironic, considering that he probably took this role because he knew that Zooey Deschanel would be playing his wife who is ostensibly almost a decade younger than him, and would therefore firmly remind people that he's too blasted old to be hanging on to the Marky Mark image. Oh no, wait this is "What's Happening!!" (Korey Coleman of already made that joke, so I guess you could say that my reference is a "Rerun". Night Shyamalan to direct a film adaptation of a '70s black sitcom. "Is it really happening? Is it really going to be? Is it what our minds were meant to feast upon?" Needless to say, that's going to be a rare occasion in which I reference a song that came out after the 21st century film I'm supposed to be discussing, but hey, if there is good music nowadays, it's bound to be by Transatlantic (78 minutes, it better be good), even if their lyrics aren't that creative, as that quote will, in fact, tell you, which isn't to say that it's quite as cheesy as the idea of getting M. Save yourself those 90 minutes of ugly frustration and just avoid it like you would viral weapons that makes you kill yourse- Oh wait trees did it. Night "Lost All Audience Respect" Shyamalan's "The Happening!" Or more accurately, don't. It's bad, it's dumb it's infuriating to watch everything go to waste, and the only thing keeping this from getting the lowest ranking possible is some pretty top notch practical effect suicides that bring a rawness to the opening sequence.
There are plenty films that hold far from Oscar winning performances I still love, but The Happening is so far from one of them. But I tell you, here they are unabashedly terrible! There is no two ways about it, from lead role to bit-part, there is not one iota of good acting from start to finish. Stars Marky Mark, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo will probably never be chiselled into the hypothetical "Mount Rushmore of Actors" but they have also all proven themselves very capable of the craft both before The Happening's release, and since.
In this sense, The Shamhammer failed as hard as I think any director ever has. Arguably the most important job a director has, is to get the best possible performance out of their actors as they can.
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