Trap can't be saved by Josh Harnett
Theatrical Movie Review - Thriller/Mystery
I am increasingly convinced that the reason M. Night Shyamalan was able to have so much success with The Sixth Sense is that if the dialogue was awkward, you could just blame it on the conceit of the movie. Most of the conversations weren’t actually conversations, so it could be excused. Unfortunately, his inability to write dialogue that flows the way real human speech patterns work is on full display in his latest film, Trap.
Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) are about to see her favorite performer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). When they arrive, Cooper notes the heavy police presence at the event. When he asks one of the vendors what is going on, he learns that the entire concert has been set as a trap to catch a serial killer. Now, Cooper and Riley have to see if they can safely escape.
It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a concert like this, but I feel confident in saying that no large-scale event of this type actually works the way the concert in this movie did. And even at events that aren’t trying to catch a serial killer, the security seemed a lot more competent than it did at this major sting.Â
The concert takes up the first full hour of the movie. The pacing isn’t slow exactly, but there isn’t much tension, and when it was wrapping up, I was sure the movie was nearly over, only to realize that we still had half a movie to go. The action began to pick up after the concert and felt much more promising. There was a moment when I thought that, unlike Shyamalan’s last few movies, this would have a slow start and a strong finish. Unfortunately, the story begins to go off the rails almost as soon as it starts to right itself, veering into wholly unbelievable scenarios. Disbelief doesn’t suspend this high.
The primary redeeming aspect of this film is Josh Hartnett as Cooper. His performance is just the right amount of unhinged the whole time, and he definitely appears to be having a good time with this role. I was unfamiliar with Ariel Donoghue, but she was solid as the daughter, playing the tween girl authentically. And while I love Allison Pill, she felt wasted in this movie. But for all of the good performances, you also have to sit through an hour of Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka giving a mediocre concert performance. So there are pros and cons as far as that is concerned.
The ludicrous nature of Trap certainly made it more tolerable than some equally terrible movies, but it never feels great when you’re laughing at what is supposed to be a tense scene. Underdeveloped characters, stilted dialogue, and absurd situations make this a movie to skip. Don’t fall into Shyamalan’s trap of believing that maybe this time he’ll make something good again.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on August 3, 2024.