It happened one summer

M. Night Shyamalan's latest offering, The Happening, has been severely panned by critics and is not doing as well at the box office as he would have probably hoped. I have not seen the movie (I am not good at handling gory images and there are quite a few such scenes in this movie) but I was curious to know how Roger Ebert felt about the movie. Here's the gist of what he had to say.

What I admire about "The Happening" is that its pace and substance allowed me to examine such thoughts, and to ask how I might respond to a wake-up call from nature. Shyamalan allows his characters space and time as they look within themselves. Those they meet on the way are such as they might indeed plausibly meet. Even the TV and radio news is done correctly, as convenient cliches about terrorism give way to bewilderment and apprehension.

I suspect I'll be in the minority in praising this film. It will be described as empty, uneventful, meandering. But for some, it will weave a spell. It is a parable, yes, but it is also simply the story of these people and how their lives and existence have suddenly become problematic. We depend on such a superstructure to maintain us that one or two alterations could leave us stranded and wandering through a field, if we are that lucky.