This is grisly, but it's really a pretty good idea. Most Armageddon movies start with the rise of an external threat, that thing in "Cloverfield," or the many zombies descended from Richard Matheson. Here, we have the bizarre spectacle of people killing themselves, and Shyamalan comes up with some doozies (including one that can be interpreted, sorry to say, as a tasteless invocation of the World Trade Center attacks).
As usual, though, Shyamalan works hard to give the movie an emotional heart, and centers this storyline around the troubled marriage of a Philadelphia couple (Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel) as they flee a local outbreak with a friend (John Leguizamo) and his daughter.
It becomes clear that Elliot (Wahlberg) and Alma will have to repair their relationship and unite if they are to survive the dangerous trip to find safe ground in a rural area.
Elliot, a science teacher, also is charged with figuring what's floating in the air, and how to survive it.
Here is where Shyamalan pays homage to Hitchcock and "The Birds." Just as the birds showed up, ready to muss Tippi Hedren's perfect hair for no good reason, "The Happening" also shows us Mother Nature in an abruptly foul mood.
The refugees think there is safety in the 'burbs, only to find themselves surrounded by the grass, bushes and trees that may have it in for them. Shots of Elliot walking among the elms are meant to give us the same ominous kick as Hedren sitting on the bench, as crows gather steadily behind her. Shyamalan throws in additional Hitch nods when the couple takes refuge in a rural home occupied by Betty Buckley.
"The Happening," alas, does not connect us to its characters like "The Birds," and does offer as many chills, despite the R-rating. Some of the baroque suicides, visited upon complete strangers, begin to smack of comedy.
