An open letter to M. Night Shyamalan:

I consider myself a fan of your work.  I have seen every one of your movies in the theaters, including the truly awful Lady in the Water.  Every time I see a new preview of your movies, I think to myself: finally, this one will be good.  I think I have to stop now.

I just watched The Happening, in the theater, like a good kid.  While I was intrigued by the concept, which I won’t give away here, the execution was terrible.  I understand the genre you were trying to reinvent — the environmental disaster movie.  But frankly, both the Simpsons Movie and Day After Tomorrow achieved better results.  And even they aren’t exactly high cinema.

My conflicts with The Happening are many.  First, let’s talk about style.  The movie was heavy handed just for the sake of being heavy handed.  You attempted to manufacture drama, rather than let it unfold slowly onscreen.  It was basically two hours of ominious sound effects and unneccesary dramatic pauses punctuated by exposition and people killing themselves in creative ways. 

Secondly, what happened to the acting?  You chose very capable actors, Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo and Zooey Deschanel.  Yet, they spent two hours looking dumbfounded.  So, you shot all of their reaction takes from below, so we could look up their noses while their nostrils flared in confusion. 

Finally, let’s talk about the resolution.  I won’t give it away, but basically you painted yourself into a plot corner. There was no real way to resolve the plot, so you didn’t.  You just stopped the movie.  After all the time you spent building tension, the ending just fizzled. It didn’t feel desperate, as it should.  It just felt bland and disappointing. 

Now, I have enjoyed several of your movies.  But, I just don’t know if I will be rushing out to see your next one. At least, not in the theaters.