El incidente

Así que, por desgracia... el trabajo del director Shyamalan en la creación de suspense está presente aquí (casa encantada con una casera espeluznante) y tienta a una calificación de 3*, pero falta todo lo demás esencial. El motivo amoroso no funciona y la relación de los protagonistas es incomprensible. Ni rastro de diálogos interesantes y remate final. El incidente es una farsa insulsa, a veces de suspense y a veces ingenua, hervida de agua, salpimentada con la música de Howard de Señales. (09.06.2008)

Supongo (y podría estar equivocado) que para una película tan deprimente, M. Night Shyamalan quiso escribir algunos diálogos extraños para aligerar el ambiente con humor. Sin embargo, lo que surgió carece de toda intención creativa. Los discursos de los personajes no tienen sentido, en momentos completamente inapropiados, sobre cosas estúpidas y pronunciados por actores realmente inapropiados. Mark Wahlberg y sobre todo Zooey Deschanel son una pareja protagonista completamente disfuncional. Y aunque la niña es el tercer personaje principal y está presente casi toda la película, es tan innecesaria que poco a poco te olvidas de que está ahí. Cuando aparece el primer atisbo de un personaje interesante (el jardinero bonachón Frank Collison), que tiene algo que decir, de repente se pone a filosofar sobre la popularidad de los perritos calientes, y a los dos minutos desaparece de la historia. La guinda del pastel es el hecho de que, ante la llegada del apocalipsis y la extinción de millones de personas, lo que más hace sufrir a Alma (Zooey Deschanel) es el remordimiento por haber engañado a su marido (Wahlberg) saliendo a tomar el postre con otro hombre. ¡Madre mía! ¿En qué mundo alternativo puede pasar algo así? (19.06.2018)

The only question I have in connection with this film relates to the budget. I’d even suspect Shyamalan of preferring to embezzle a little something into his own pocket as if he suspected that his latest venture (as is slowly becoming his habit) wouldn't even make money. But now more seriously: I was not at all disappointed because this is exactly the kind of intimate thriller I was expecting. Shyamalan plunges ordinary characters into a marginal situation that cannot be properly rationally explained, leaving them groping not only over the question of mysterious deaths but also over their own relationships. These relationships are stressed in the extreme, even if some of the dialogue suffers from "romantic B-movie" syndrome. It's not about bogeymen, it's about questions we need to start asking. PS: At times, Shyamalan and his cinematographer Fujimoto did such great work that I thought about how good it would be if he had made Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. (21.07.2008)

Quite fun. How much you’ll enjoy it will depend on when you give up hope of a chilling thriller to make do with a parody of catastrophe movies. I did it during the first ten minutes and I could watch the rest with a smile on my face. I don’t think there’s any other way to be satisfied, because Shyalaman simply could not mean this seriously. Or maybe he did at first, but when he realised that Wahlberg and Deschanel weren’t the right casting choices, he decided to use them differently and turn the thriller he had planned into the utmost B-movie. What takes the film down very deep are the dialogues and the way the actors utter them, otherwise it would’ve been alright, there’s even some atmosphere here and there. I really want to believe in what I’ve just written, but unfortunately, I’m not that sure. If Happening is so bad unintentionally, we are witnessing an enormous failure by a director. There’s one exchange by the end that gives me some hope that my theory is true. In the scene when Elliot is telling about the time he went to buy cough syrup. Alma: “Are you joking?” (Elliot nods in agreement). Alma: “Thanks.” (05.07.2008)

It’s a pity that the wind didn’t also engulf Václav Klaus, at least Shymalan's ecological agitprop would have had some useful effect. Now, seriously, Shyamalan hasn't lost his directorial skill and he can still make scenes that give you chills, but the problem here is in two things: the half-baked concept, where logic takes a vacation quite often, and then the leading duo. Mark Wahlberg, as much as I like him, is absolutely unsuited to the role of a high school biology professor and bumbling husband (Mark's pissed-off macho characters are best with a gun in his hand) and whenever he tries to play some serious emotion and speaks up, he ruins all the action on screen with his perpetually furrowed brow and unbelievable speech. Mark, sorry, this didn't work out (and now I’m afraid of Jackson's The Lovely Bones). And Zooey, that doll with big eyes, gives it an even bigger punch. So Shyamalan lost with the casting and the half-baked script, but I'm still a fan. (20.07.2008)