Things that Happened in "The Happening"

It was a saturday weekend, I was tweaking something with my linux. Then one of my school friends messaged, asking me to come out for a film i.e, "The Happening". I was totally not into the film, But I had rejected my friends offer to go out in the evening three times during that week and if I had rejected this, it would have jeopardized our trip to the pool next week, So accepted it reluctantly. We reached the theater, my friend bought Rs 65 tickets for this not so happening film. They thing that made my stomach burn was, the previous week I had seen Dasavatharam for just Rs50 ticket on a second day show, while I was paying Rs65 for this crappy film. Anyways we entered the theatre, there were hardly 80 people in theater.

The film started with an anime mentos Ad ( where the monkey becums man) which my brilliant friend took it for the actual movie and asking me was this is a cartoon film. Well the actual film started later, you see New york, central park where two lovely ladies are seated in a bench. Then suddenly, one of the ladies takes a hair pin slits her throat to commit suicide. This was the first in the long line of the suicides you see in the film. The Next scene you see construction workers jumping of from top of the buildings leaving me to wonder whether they were trying bunchy jumping. The story revolves around Mark Wahlberg, a teacher in philadelphia. The news soon reaches Mark's school, of the weird things Happening in the city i.e, people committing suicides. This suicides cause massive evacuation of New york, our hero Mark,his wife, his friend along with his daughter rush to the train station to flee from the city. Only to find that people are committing suicides even at the train's destination place. Infact few suicides are interesting to begin with, I can understand Shylaman trying to strike a fear at the hearts of people who are watching the movie(it does in the beginning). But the problem is it gets repetitive, nevertheless to Shylaman's credit he does come up with very innovative ways for people to kill themselves throughout the film.

1. Jump from top of building
2. Make yourself as a breakfast to the Lion's in your Local Zoo( This video is shown in an iPhone, I cant wait to get my hands on it, when it comes to india)
   
3. Ram your Car at full speed onto a tree
4. Start a Lawn mover , Lay down in its path
5. Shoot yourself with a gun
6. Slit your throat with a hair pin
7. Hang yourself in a traffic Signal
8. Beat Your head against a Glass wall

Only to mention a few of the suicide methods in this film. An alternate title for the movie could have been "An Amateur's guide to How to Kill Yourself..!!!". Anyways, back to the story, Our hero finds out that the people are killing themselves because of the some weird Air Borne neuro toxin released by plants. Its time for the plants and trees to take revenge on humans by releasing neurotoxins so that humans kill themselves, for deforestation we have carried out. But unfortunately our hero and his group are in a middle of grass land. So as you would naturally expect, few people commit suicides here as the plants attack. It is found that large number of humans present in an area triggers this neuro toxin release by plants. So they all split apart (but how can they hero and the heroine be separated, so they remain together). By this time, the only thing that was happening in theater was, one of my friends had gone to sleep ,the next one was busy talking to his friend over the phone and the next person was trying to watching the movie rather seeing the movie I should say( I mean he never gets what this actors speak in this English films with their accents, for him Hollywood films should be with loads of action like Anaconda,Godzilla type and little to do with stories). It was interval , I had to wake up my sleeping friend, we went outside. We were adamant that we need to get something back at this theater for ripping Rs 65 for this stupid film. So while entering back, post interval we made the entry through the Rs 85 ticket door , instead of the Rs65 ones. And the seats this time was really cozy and big. It was not like the theater was over following with people for anybody to notice.


Now coming back to story.The hero along with his wife and friend's daughter end up finding shelter in some spooky house (as you find in most horror movies) with a weird Old Lady who stays disconnected from the rest of the world( there is no power line to the house, no phone etc).They spent the night there.When our hero,wakes up next morning, he finds the Old lady infected by neuro toxin trying to kill herself by ramming her head against the wall. Of Course she does a good job of it, with blood coming out of her eyes. Our hero closes all doors to prevent neurotoxin entering the house. He manages to lock himself in a room. He hears voices of his wife and his friend's daughter in the room through the state of the art connectivity provided by the water pipes. Apparently his wife and his friends daughter had gone on an early morning jogging trip ending up at backyard house. He warns them to close the all doors through water pipes which they oblige. They decide to ride out the neuro toxin storm separated, but our hero doesn't want to die alone in a shabby room, he wants to die in the arms of his beloved wife. So he goes out, inspite of the neurotoxins in the air .You see the time is 9.58AM as he ventures out.Now (Big Yawn by me at the theatre here) this is something you must have scene in almost every love song in tamil films where the hero and heroine run towards each other in a natural scenic background, to hug each other, cuddle etc. This is the climax( Dont give out a gasp) of the happening, inspite of the neurotoxins in air, our hero and heroine cant stand separated from each there. Well, as always love conquers all, the neurotoxin storm had stopped at 9.27AM itself,lucky them (May be the plants have a scheduled timer to stop at the exact time) .Our hero and heroine are saved. Atleast, Thank God for the fact , nobody in the theater committed suicide for being made to watch this movie( it was so full of people trying to commit suicides).


The only thing fullfilling that day was that we went to " The Village "(Ohh, not another Shylaman movie, its a restaurant in my city) where I had a very delicious baby corn dosa. Apparently the restaurant boasts of ten varieties of Dosa. I am planning to taste atleast half of those dosa types, before I leave for bangalore. And for the "The Happening", I have told you the things that happened on that day, the baby corn dosa turned out to be more satisfying than the movie. Well, as for the movie, the plot was scary with plants attacking humans via toxins to kill us, couple of scenes were scary. But it could have been better as the movie progressed. The fear at the start of the movie was replaced by yawning and boredom for me as the movie progressed . To sum it up


Rating: 2.25/5 for "The Happening"


Watch it, if you have nothing to do at your home..!!

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