the Color of Context

Famous for making movies with surprising and complex plot twists, M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, “The Happening,” has perhaps the greatest twist ending of all–none. And let me tell you, he really got me: I was so waiting for the big reveal, even making mental notes along the way of the parts I thought might end up being significant later on–like the half-empty glasses of water did in “Signs,” or the use of the color red did in “The Sixth Sense.” Alas, Shyamalan was simply too clever for me, and his ending–or, in this case, lack thereof–once again managed to catch me off guard. Perhaps I should have paid more heed to the part where teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) commends a student’s explanation for the disappearance of the bees, namely that it was an act of nature and we’ll never fully understand it. Don’t get me wrong: The movie as a whole was absolutely brilliant. Performances by Wahlberg and the lovely Zooey Deschanel, who plays his wife, were captivating and perfectly stylized. The dialogue was interesting and often hilarious. The plot was exquisitely bizarre and yet relevant–the headline about the bees could have been ripped right from a real-life newspaper. But Shyamalan is such a genius at crafting perfect endings, endings that shock, but also satisfy. In contrast, the beginning and middle of “The Happening” have all the same earmarks of a Shyamalan flick–adventure, intrigue, humor and a mystery that begs a solution. But unfortunately, the ending seems to have gone the way of the bees. –Jerilyn Covert

He said . . .

At what point in M. Night Shyamalan’s career would the twist ending seem contrived or gratuitous? In “The Happening,” Shyamalan abandons the big shock for a straightforward, horror-nature tale that comes across more Stephen King than Alfred Hitchcock. The ending as it is could not have worked out better for the creepy thriller with strong performances from its outstanding cast. The “big twist” has worked for Shyamalan in the past with mixed results, and I applaud his decision to let this story tell itself. Shyamalan was in danger of being pigeonholed as an artist with only one brush. I feel that if Shyamalan continued to bank on his now notorious twist endings he would cease growing as an artist and in time would loose his audience by utilizing the same trickery he used to gain them in the first place. I never felt cheated due to the lack of a big reveal or shocking twist and for the second straight time, he gives the audience something unexpected without trying to trick them. “The Happening” is a really good film with a really good ending, just as I expected it would be. –Joe DeRosa