Trap

Two and a half decades after he broke out M. Night Shyamalan delivers exactly the kind of movie I wanted from him at this stage of the game.

Is it a return to form? I’m not sure he ever wasn’t in fighting shape but a tense little flick filled with jokes and subtle winks at the camera just hit the spot.

As one IMDB contributor pointed out, the serial killer in Trap is being hunted by by an FBI profiler played by the star of the original Parent Trap, Hayley Mills.

That’s a fourth level dad joke.

I don’t think I can tell you how much I liked this without going through my experience with the Shyamalan filmography so forgive me but let’s take a look.

In 1999, I was in college and I leaned over to my friend, who had already seen it, and dragged me to it and started to whisper, “he’s a ghost.”

She cut me off. As if, ‘no you did not figure it out, and if you did you need to shut up about it.’

She didn’t believe me when I told her later that I had, in fact, spotted the signs and seen where this was going.

It didn’t ruin anything about the movie. The Sixth Sense introduced us to this unique writer/director and we all couldn’t wait for the next one.

Unbreakable has rightfully grown in movie critic esteem but at the time I can recall people being disappointed with the twist. As a giant comic book fan I was of course overjoyed with it. It’s hard to explain to a society that has grown up with the MCU completely dominating cinema and movie culture but in the bad old days this is as close as we could get in any year to a good super hero movie.

I think Signs is his best film and I will accept none of your complaints about alien vulnerabilities.

Complaining about that is the critical equivalent of, “WhY DiDnt the EAglEs FLy tHEm to MOrdOr.”

Get thee behind me Satan.

I pretty much tapped out after The Village. It doesn’t deserve its reputation as a bad Shyamalan movie but it is a middling affair.

You get older. You think you have seen everything a director has and there just isn’t the time there used to be.

Also, you live by the Twilight Zonesque twist and you will die by the twist. Especially when the audience spends all their time looking for it instead of just sitting back and enjoying the story.

But I came back for Split cause I really wanted a sequel to Unbreakable. Split is pretty good on its own but Glass turned my two decade long hope for a sequel into a monkey’s paw sort of wish.

Old is exactly the kind of movie I don’t want to watch and so I never have.

I think I might like Knock at the Cabin but it’s one of those that’s on the list that I just never actually watch. Going to try it soon though, maybe after I’m done writing this review.

What I’m trying to say — long winded as always — is that for me Trap doesn’t just exist as a fun little Josh Hartnett thriller.

As someone once said we exist in the context of all that came before us. Because I have this decades long connection with Shyamalan’s movies this one jumped out at me.

You see the trailer and you go, “I think he’s gonna do the very particular thing I want him to do.”

It doesn’t reach the heights of his original films but what athlete is as great as they were in their 20s when they hit 40s or their 50s? Also, once you have seen a director’s tricks and affectations it’s nearly impossible for them to really surprise you.

But, I had way more fun with this than I really hoped for. It’s clear that Shyamalan handed Hartnett the ball and he carried it with fun and professionalism.

It’s not Olivier but Hartnett finds a nice groove where he can be both the loving, cringe-inducing dad and the evil serial killer. In the movie he switches between them with a look.

It’s not quite the Clark Kent into Superman transition that Christopher Reeve once pulled off but it’s close. And it’s impressive.

Shyamalan’s camerawork remains top notch. Yes, it’s formal and mannered and maybe heavy handed (no one will ever accuse Shyamalan of having a documentary style) but those little camera placements and moves are both part of deal you make when you watch his flicks and a big part of the vibe.

There’s a shot where the camera looks down on two characters in between a stack of boxes in a storage closet. Why is it there? I suspect just because Shyamalan thought it would look cool.

The same thing with a reflection in a tea kettle.

Movies are just cool sometimes.

Some corners of the internet have come for Shyamalan’s dialogue. And as a huge story and dialogue guy I can’t argue with them.

But for the most part I don’t mind it. It’s stilted, I suppose, but what it really is is serviceable. Everything that happens here is in service to the plot.

Consider this, while he is in the concert, Hartnett steals a police radio and manages to listen in on the FBI and the cops. And, of course, every single time he turns it on he learns an important piece of information.

In the real world there would minutes or hours of our killer hearing the donut orders and idle chatter.

Does the real world work that way? Nope.

No one in the movies ever wastes time telling a driver their address or actually sharing their phone numbers or other details someone might need for a future meeting.

It’s just, let’s get coffee sometime and the boom next scene coffee.

Movies and, in particular, lean thrillers like this have to work that way to keep the story rolling and the audience engaged.

By the end of this thing every motivation, escape and moment is discussed and explained.

Realistic? Not at all. Fun in the moment or necessary so the audience will stay with the movie? Absolutely.

Shyamalan cast his daughter as the pop star that is the center of the giant concert where most of the movie takes place. Did this bit of nepotism bug me? Nah.

Good for him, good for them, if you succeed in life you ought to do things like that for your family.

I mean, I hated the music, but there was literally no pop star who could have done this that I would have liked. It would have to have been a jam band or a dad rock concert for me to enjoy the songs and that obviously would not have worked.

Shyamalan’s daughter is asked to carry the last act of the movie. If the rest of the movie is unrealistic the last act (a series of unbelievable escapes and twists) leaves the natural world behind.

But by then I was enjoying myself so much I did not care at all.

In that act Shyamalan does this thing, he’s been doing it since I was in college, where one character is trapped behind a door and something bad is happening on the other side.

And the audience is trapped with the character and can hear the terror but we can’t see it.

And folks, when it happened, I cackled like I had seen feet in a Quentin Tarantino movie.