I wanted to like the Happening. I liked Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, while I was luke-warm on the Village and didn’t care much for Signs. I heard rough reviews of The Happening, but thought that might help. Usually low expectations help me a lot with movies.
My number 1 problem was the acting. Most reviews I’ve read point that problem at Mark Wahlberg, but I think Zooey Deschanel was at the center of this acting storm. Everyone in this movie was 1-dimensional and stereotypical. The one character with 2 dimensions was full-on schizophrenic (the old lady).
Ebert’s review of this made the case that there wasn’t enough action for Summer movie-goers, but he liked it anyway. I like movies with simple settings, and low action. But cheesy dialoge and no-character depth? This was the ugly love-child of War of the Worlds and Cloverfield.
The one sequence I liked (I’ll try to write this in a spoiler free manner…). The news conference, to the personal events in Philedelphia, to the sequence in France. I thought this was a pretty clear message about people’s reactions to the “Event”, and what the consequences of those reactions were.