The concert’s a hit; the outcome’s a miss.
M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” is a curious one at that. I’m sure us fans and non-fans of his work are curious to know what the twists are this time. All we know is that Josh Hartnett plays a Philadelphia father named Cooper, who takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donahue) to the concert of her all-time favorite singer Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, daughter of you know who), and finds that it’s surrounded by the police and F.B.I., who are trying to stage a trap for the serial killer known as the Butcher. And what we already know, thanks to the trailers and so forth, is that Cooper is the Butcher.
The trap is set up by Dr. Grant (Hayley Mills), who knows that the killer knows he’s trapped at the concert, and that he’ll do everything in his power to escape. He’s even willing to sweet talk his way into various escape roots, or at least intel on any window of opportunities. So, when an opportunity comes a knockin’, he’ll go a rockin’.
Now, believing that the filmmaker deserves the B.O.T.D. every now and then, I was eager to see how things would play out. What are the twists this time? Do they have something to do with a mind game? Or are they predictable? Or are they convoluted and typical? I guess my answer would be both questions 1 and 3.
When we get to the concert, there’s a tone and ambiance within that seems to be in love with singers like Rihanna or Sia, and Saleka Shyamalan has a singing voice that reminds us of them. And as Cooper is walking around, we wonder what his dirty tricks are and how he convince his daughter that nothing bad is going on, even though he constantly has to leave their seats.
Last June, Syalaman’s other daughter Ishana made her directorial debut of “The Watchers,” which her father produced, and which I’m glad wasn’t the hit they wanted it to be. As I closed my review of it, I said: “And next up this summer is M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap.” Let’s see if it’s better, worse, or equal to “The Watchers.” I mean what did we really expect?” I’d say “Trap” is a little better than “The Watchers,” because of Hartnett’s performance and the ambiance, but the outcome doesn’t leave much to the imagination.
For example: there’s a subplot when Riley had an issue with two other girls, and the mother of one of them (Marnie McPhail) tries to patch things up with Cooper. They never really explain what happened. All I got out of it is when something very special happens to Riley, the other girl blames her mother for not getting her that opportunity and throws her drink at her. And I’m like: “Really? That’s what teenagers resort to nowadays?”
And every once in a while, you have an interesting supporting character or a cameo, at least. The interesting supporting character is a shirt vendor named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon), who follows the Butcher’s work, and the cameo is Kid Cudi who plays a rapper named The Thinker and wears a blonde wig.
About Hartnett’s performance, as you’re wondering what specific things I enjoyed from him. He seems to have a certain kind of Jack Nicholson charm with the smile and tone, and I enjoyed watching him thrive on the game he’s trapped in. Donahue could be a good young actress, but she doesn’t really distinguish herself from other horror movie characters. She asks her old man why he’s acting strange, but she’s too star struck to read between the lines.
Again, fans and non-fans must be eager to know what Shyalaman (and remember: he’s directing this time) has in store for them. All I can say is: it starts off interesting, but ends up typical. I mean what did we really expect? I said it again. It better not be a thing in my review of his next entry.