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The Happening

Shyamalan has lost his sixth sense
By TOM MEEK  |  June 18, 2008
2.0 2.0 Stars
happeningWIDGET.jpg

If you’ve ever seen a M. Night Shyamalan film, you know what’s happening; eerie shit goes down, death looms, no one knows why — and it happens in the middle of a Pennsylvania cornfield. The Village and Signs rolled that way. Here, the scourge du jour is a neurotoxin that puts everyone in a suicidal stupor. (The grim acts of offing earned Shyamalan his “first” R rating — as the ads boast.) Is it a terrorist attack, a government experiment run amok, or just nature giving us a little payback for screwing up the planet? Shyamalan stretches this enigma beyond credibility. Despite that and some tiresome over-explanation, the film almost makes sense in the end. Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel serve as the director’s microcosmic lens to the mass hysteria. They’re a troubled couple, but the real trouble is behind the lens — what’s happening is that Shyamalan has lost his sixth sense. 91 Minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Somerville Theatre + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + Suburbs

Related: Feel-bad cinema, Ghost of future past, Apocalypse now and then, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Zooey Deschanel, Mark Wahlberg, M. Night Shyamalan
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