AUGUST 2, 2024
GENRE: THRILLER
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (REGULAR SCREENING)
I cackled with glee at the first trailer for Trap, where the reveal that Josh Hartnett's seemingly dorky dad was a serial killer was saved for the end (if you haven't seen it yet, please go watch it first before reading, as the below is written on the assumption you know the premise). The second trailer didn't bother to hide it, shutting up all the "They gave the twist away!" dummies by showing us that the film wasn't treating this as a reveal; it's only about 15 minutes into the movie that Hartnett pulls his phone out to reveal the guy chained up in his basement, and the movie was more or less about how he tries to plot his escape while avoiding suspicion from his daughter. But of course, being an M. Night Shyamalan movie, we all assumed there was still another twist to go. What if the daughter was actually the killer? What if he was a DIFFERENT killer and ended up inadvertently helping the police?
(SPOILERS AHEAD! Old school HMAD review here, which means you should only read this if you've seen the movie already. Or just don't care about spoilers.)
Well, unfortunately, there isn't really any grander ambition here. Hartnett's Cooper is indeed the killer, no accomplices or anything like that. There's a minor "twist", for lack of a better word, involving how the police knew he'd be at the concert in the first place, but it's hardly a big reveal - it's basically just an explanation that might make you go "Ohhh... that makes a little more sense, I guess." It's a rare instance of the director's filmography working against him; we've gotten so accustomed to his wacky third acts that the fact that this movie ends on a fairly normal/basic note it almost feels like a disappointment.
But I could live with that. What really kinda knocks this into "It's fine" territory after a terrific first half is that they leave the concert, which is always a death curse for these kind of contained thrillers. It's nothing new for them really; Red Eye leaves the plane, Speed left the bus, etc. The difference is that they just run out of plausible scenarios and mix it up a bit for the finale. Here, however, they leave the concert at the movie's halfway point, which is a bit too early in my opinion. Some contrivances allow Cooper (and his still oblivious daughter) to exit the premises without being checked even though hundreds of cops are specifically looking for a guy matching his description, and it's at that moment the movie started to unravel for me. The real joy of it thus far was seeing him do kind of terrible things in order to sneak past a door or a guard (the trailer shows most of them, alas) while looking like a good Samaritan or bland suburban dad, but for this he basically just outs himself to someone and blackmails them into helping them exit.
Not that the back half is a total wash. There are still some good suspense bits (including one with the megastar singer in a bathroom attempting to use her fans to locate the basement guy) and Hartnett's performance is still a hoot, but it never fully recovers the tense "How is he going to get out of THIS ONE?" kind of thrills of the concert section (that one such later scenario, involving a limo, simply skips ahead a minute to avoid showing how indeed he was able to escape a situation, doesn't help). And then the lack of a gonzo twist just makes it feel even more of a letdown, as if Shyamalan just had a few writers from some CBS procedural knock out the script's last 30 pages or so. Also, a large chunk of the finale revolves around Cooper's wife (Allison Pill), but her character was never even mentioned prior to her 3rd act introduction, which leaves her contributions fall a little flat. I spent the entire movie assuming Cooper was a single or divorced dad, so when we learn he has a wife and another kid, I couldn't help but wonder why Shyamalan didn't work the mom into the story a little more, if only to really sell her role in the proceedings.
Especially since it kind of recontextualizes Cooper in a way that doesn't exactly help the movie. For 60 minutes or whatever, I thought I was watching a movie about a single dad who was struggling with the usual things single parents deal with on their own (the daughter has been bullied by some mean girls, he was a little late because he couldn't get off from work any earlier, etc.) while also trying to carry on as a serial killer, but turns out he's part of a traditional nuclear family. So what's the deal here? Did he lose a coin toss with his wife to be the one to pierce their eardrums to chaperone a teenybopper concert? Does he have these same kind of struggles when with his son? Or on date night? It's the rare Shyamalan "reveal" where I wished it was something absolutely ludicrous (he's a pod person! or something), because while it's a completely normal thing, it kind of awkwardly reframes the main character's whole deal.
Because honestly, I was super into the "A single dad is also a serial killer and he's trying really hard to be good at both" idea. Early on he makes dad jokes and tries to learn slang and stuff, and—especially considering how fully committed Hartnett is in the role—it would have been amazing to see that carried throughout the movie even after we learn he's "The Butcher." Seeing him try to avoid capture while also slipping into "Dad mode" could have resulted in an all timer for both Shyamalan and Hartnett, but the latter's whole "dorky dad" thing is essentially forgotten after about 40 minutes. There's a scene where his daughter gets to dance on stage for a song with the singer (Shyamalan's actual daughter, who is in reality a budding performer, but here is a sort of Taylor Swift/Beyonce kind of mega-idol to the tweens), and he spends the entire time just sort of eyeing the exits and such, not once acting like a dad who is stoked for his daughter. Snap a pic from your phone, bro! (And don't try to claim "It's just realistic, a sociopath wouldn't think of that" - the whole movie is built on nonsense, so we certainly don't need to stick to DSM-V definitions.)
All that said, if you just take it as a standard nailbiter thriller, it's a good enough time. The PG-13 rating means we never really get to see what makes The Butcher such a terrifying threat, but it doesn't really matter—it's clear that he's a BTK-type who can pass himself off as a normal family man and that this is the first time his secret has been so close to being exposed, which is all you really need for this story to work. And Hartnett is one of the few actors who possess that likability that leaves us kind of WANTING him to escape even though he's a vicious murderer. This movie doesn't work at all with someone with some questionable real life choices, but Hartnett has been a good boy as far as we know (that he's also in a the midst of a comeback after kind of shrugging off Hollywood for a while made me want to root for him even more). And who can totally dismiss a movie about setting a trap for someone and casting Hayley Mills as one of the trap's designers?
Speaking of Shyamalan's casting decisions, as always he makes a cameo, but for a couple seconds I thought he was finally doing it "right." Even if this WASN'T his most Hitchcockian movie yet (besides the Rope-esque containment plotting, it goes into full on Psycho territory near the end), there's no doubt that he would continue contributing a cameo as he (and Hitch) always does. But whereas Hitchcock's appearances were usually blink and miss kind of affairs, Shyamalan usually gives himself dialogue and often plays some kind of important (if minor) role in the proceedings, like the guy who hit Mel's wife's car in Signs, or the dude who brings them to the beach in Old. But there's a shot of the crowd as Hartnett makes his way back to his seat, and if you're looking in the right spot you'd see Shyamalan as one of the venue employees. And I was like "Oh that's cute, for his most Hitchcock-esque movie he actually did a Hitchcock style cameo!" But nope, he plays the singer's uncle, who Hartnett speaks to in order to get his daughter on stage. That first appearance was basically just proper continuity.
Still, it more or less works. Basically, lower expectations for both a Shyamalan movie and a "contained" one and you will probably have a good time as long as you just go with it; it's just that this is kind of a standard request for his movies and it feels a little weird for one that's fully grounded in reality (and the other two exceptions, The Visit and The Village, are both shown under illusory presentations; the found footage aspect of the former and the "There are monsters!" plot of the latter, so there's still a sense of unreality that Trap lacks). For a polarizing filmmaker like Shyamalan, a movie that's basically just fine almost seems like a betrayal, but maybe he's looking to get out from under the weight of those expectations and make more grounded thrillers? And if that's the case, he's off to a decent start.
What say you?
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