The Not Happening, a personal advice

I know you’re not visiting to read a review, but I just have to vent (rant) about that new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Now let me first say I’ve never really been disappointed by one of his movies. Ok, by ‘Signs’ maybe, but I enjoyed most of his other works. I even somewhat liked ‘Lady in the Water,’ although I agree if you’d say it was all downhill from ‘The Sixth Sense.’

His latest thrillride however, is just awful. I mean aaaaawful. Skip it unless you’re looking for a movie to make you laugh. What’s the problem? The script. Some might say it’s the poor acting. But if the lines are this bad, how can you satisfy as an actor? Mark Wahlberg starts of weak. As suspected by the trailer, the ‘bad boy’ can’t convince as a teacher — at all. But he grows in his role after leaving the school. Zooey Deschanel isn’t bad either. Although she does play her role on the weird side, which was about the only interesting part of the movie.

Except for the screenplay, the movie is done pretty well. Good cinematography, a decent soundtrack and even the suspense is good, when there is some. It’s just as if Shyamalan directed the script of some B-movie scriptwriter wannabe. It gets even more strange when Shyamalan pulls of a couple of jokes. Intentional jokes, not the ones where the audience started laughing during a serious scene. Maybe he has to try a new genre?

At the heart of this movie there’s a love story, which is as convincing as the general story — slight spoiler alert. The girl went for coffee with another guy. Her boyfriend finds out. We don’t care. They make up. Did he write the screenplay on one drunken evening. What is this? There’s really nothing to it. No intelligent plot, no smart twist. During the whole movie I never felt as if he took his viewers seriously. Shyamalan has really lost it.

I’ll end this little rant by again advising you not to see this movie. It’s sad, I really wanted to like it. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.