Note to M. Night Shyamalan: No matter which angle you shoot it from, a mild summer breeze is not terrifying. A hurricane, absolutely; a tornado, most certainly; a typhoon, indubitably. Hell, even an especially large dust devil may prove capable of jangling the nerves of some particularly sensitive anemophobics. Unfortunately (at least for Shyamalan), the continuous scenes of trees ominously rustling in the breeze or fields of grass churning like a menacing green ocean throughout The Happening mostly elicit feelings of tranquility and inner peace rather than paralyzing fear and insurmountable dread – the kiss of death for a film attempting to paint nature as the ultimate enemy of mankind. But Shyamalan’s failure to make gusts of wind blow fear into the hearts of moviegoers isn’t the only reason why The Happening fails to click as an effective horror film; weak direction of actors, a meandering screenplay, and a particularly anemic ending all add up to a misfire that, despite an admittedly original premise and a promise to ramp up the gruesome imagery, largely lacks any real sense of tension or danger. Sadly, since the director fails to ratchet up the levels of intensity any higher than in his previous films, the widely-touted fact that this is his first “R” rated film feels like a gimmicky (and somewhat misleading) ploy to convince moviegoers that Shyamalan has finally taken off the “kid gloves,” as opposed to a sincere attempt to grow as a filmmaker, or branch out into more challenging and mature themes.

 
Lest anyone think that this reviewer is one of those moviegoers who seem to “have it out” for Shyamalan, I should mention at this point that I enjoyed The Sixth Sense, thought that Unbreakable was even better, and didn’t hate The Village . (The less said about Signs the better, and I missed Lady in the Water altogether).

 
The Happening opens with a gruesome montage of everyday New Yorkers in the vicinity of Central Park inexplicably seizing up and killing themselves in the most immediate manners possible – regardless of how gruesome or painful. But what is causing this grim wave of mass suicide? As the problem begins to spread across the northeastern United States, Philadelphia schoolteacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg), his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel), Elliot’s friend Julian (John Leguizamo), and Julian’s daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) all hop a train bound for the country, where they will presumably be safe from whatever it is that’s causing construction workers to casually stroll off of inner-city skyscrapers.

 
Those opening moments of mayhem and chaos are the scenes in which The Happening is at its best. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the action to move to the country, driving the film to a screeching halt save for one particularly tense showdown between Elliot’s small group of wandering survivors and another, decidedly more paranoid group of refugees who have locked themselves securely in a country home. The concept of the film is interesting for viewers who are willing to accept it on face value, but the direction in which Shyamalan takes it as a screenwriter just isn’t very interesting or frightening. Likewise, Shyamalan should really take some time to reevaluate the way that he directs his actors, as some of the performances in The Happening are downright embarrassing to watch. Deschanel in particular is a doe-eyed disaster as Elliot’s insecure, potentially unfaithful wife, and the supporting players are uneven at best (Frank Collison is entertaining for all the wrong reasons in his small role as an adamant hot dog enthusiast and unusually perceptive nursery owner). It seems that Shyamalan is attempting to convey the sometimes loopy behavior of normal people attempting to function under unusual and extraordinary circumstances, but the only actors who seem to strike the right tone are Wahlberg and Leguizamo - and even those two veer into occasional hammy hysterics before regaining their senses and reigning it in. The remainder of the cast just comes off as if they’re struggling, giving the impression that the director just couldn’t figure out which tone he was trying to strike. Set against the backdrop of a breezy country morning, the dialogue-heavy ending in particular is a real letdown. By the time the few surviving protagonists are attempting to talk through their terror, the average moviegoer is more likely to long for a summer stroll through the park rather than sit out the credits in the air conditioned theater for fear of nature’s wrath.