Citizen Shame: If only something was 'Happening'

In 2007, Boston’s own Mark Wahlberg found a new level of success when he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Martin Scorsese’s "The Departed" (2006). Two years later, he demonstrated that talent is a spectrum by performing in M. Night Shyamalan’s disasterpiece "The Happening" (2008).

You may know Shyamalan as the man who ruined your childhood by bringing "The Last Airbender" (2010) to the big screen, or as the guy who tricked you into thinking John McClane could be a successful psychologist.

But here, Shyamalan is producing on an even higher level, as he tells the daringly apocalyptic story of "The Happening." Wahlberg plays Elliot Moore, a high school science teacher, which might be believable if you are 7 years old or severely confused.

The pretense of "The Happening" is that something is happening, but Shyamalan takes care to make sure there are no elements of excitement, basic plot or anything to distract you or make you think you know what that something is.

You know those Odyssey or Medium articles that someone writes and then shares on Facebook to promote some brilliant hot take on the importance of Greek life, or the think pieces that ramble on about the keys of positivity? "The Happening" is their glorious film counterpart.

After a bizarre toxin causes mass suicides and other unexplainable events around the world, Wahlberg takes his family and friend on a quest for safety. What they’re running from, where they’re running to and why this film got a production budget of nearly $50 million are all mysteries that are never really answered.

What follows is some questionably wonderful science fiction speculation meshed with the road trip drama one could expect from such an auteur as Shyamalan. At its core, the film reinvents the disaster thriller genre by taking out suspense or audience interest and replacing them with Wahlberg and lots of plant-based discussion and concern.

That’s where the film reaches its all-time-great status. Viewers accustomed to Shyamalan’s twisty style might expect an ending that reveals some previously unseen threat or alien force or really anything to justify the making of this movie, but Shyamalan uses a little reverse psychology and really tricks you.

Instead of a twist ending, the director decides to raise both middle fingers at the audience by revealing that the entire movie is about the plants on Earth rebelling or something like that. (At this point in the film, it is hard to listen to the dialogue without assuring yourself out loud that it will be over soon, so some details might have been lost).

It’s a brilliant redirection of viewer expectation, and you can actually see the moment Wahlberg questions the movie as a career choice. He famously vowed afterward to read scripts before agreeing to star in them just to ensure that they do not involve plant villains and also to make certain that something, anything, is actually happening.