Miz Woody's Place

Shyamalan Not “Happening” This Time

Don’t get me wrong. I am not one of those people who thinks M. Night Shyamalan is a geek who makes geek movies for geeks. I mean, sure, he’s a geek, but in the best possible way. He’s smart, funny, original and inventive. He shows up in his own films, which is kind of a hoot. Plus, his films always have an underlying message that makes for interesting discussion on the way home from the theater.

That said, don’t read the rest of this if you want to see the movie and be surprised. I have no compunction about spoiling this for you.

“The Happening” really let me down. Firstly, the message is delivered in a ham fisted way. Secondly, the message is laughably Politically Correct and trite. Thirdly, there was way too much gore.

The gore was the least objectionable aspect for me. I just closed my eyes after the lions ate the guy’s first arm. (Maybe that’s why I missed seeing M. Night in this movie.) My problem with the gore is that it’s a big departure from Shyamalan’s style. When you’ve seen five of his films, you know the man’s style – his brand, if you will. So, I go to see a Shyamalan sci-fi cum suspense film and see a gore picture: can’t help it, I feel like a victim of bait and switch.

The laughable Politically Correct message is that humans are destroying the earth with pollution. Now, I understand that Global Warming is the cause du jour amongst film makers. So I can forgive Mr. Shyamalan for falling in line. I think I’d have been okay with it if he’d used his usual airy-fairy-mystical approach. You know: Gaia/Mother Earth is angry with us (remember Captain Planet?) Or maybe it’s just the spirits of the trees that are fed up with us.

No, this time M. Night decided to go “scientific.” And we all know that means Evolution. Yup, the plants have evolved the ability to kill off their predators…that would be you and me, the evil polluters. Here’s the part where I actually laughed out loud: one of the TV commentators so prevalent in Shyamalan’s films says, because of the increasing threat from mankind, the trees “had no choice but to speed up their evolution” and develop human-specific toxins.

Oh really? I thought evolution took millions of years and was completely random. Now the trees are deciding, not only how to evolve, but how fast to do it. Please.

The most egregious flaw in this film is that it leaves nothing to the imagination or the intellect. Another laugh-out-loud moment for me was when Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel were fleeing the model home in which they had found brief respite. They conveniently run past a huge sign touting the virtues of the housing development. At the very top of the sign we read:
“You deserve this!”

Every story has an underlying message, even if it’s only in the world view of the author. I understand that. But if you want to entertain people, you have to tell a compelling story. If you want to enlighten, inform or harangue people, you preach a sermon. Story as sermon is a sure recipe for a flop.

All the Way Home

Building a Family in a Falling-Down House, by David Giffels

This is a must-read for anyone that has ever wanted to buy an old house and rehab it into a thing of beauty. We’ve all seen the interior decorating magazine articles and home decorating tv shows: the before and after pictures. That’s what snares us. The dreary before pictures and the lovely, completely harmonious, light filled spaces of the “after” photos. What a wonderful thing that would be, to transform a dark old hulk into the pristine wonder of the neighborhood.

This book is neither the before nor the after. This is the in-between: the reality of buying your dream home and the nightmare of turning it into the home of your dreams.

It is also the story of a Grown-up Kid coming to grips with being a Man who must provide a home for his family. The Grown-up Kid provides us with plenty of humor along the way. He’s having a blast playing with his tools, inventing solutions and battling wild beasts (in the attic, no less.) The Man gives us cause for concern: will his family survive intact? He has to somehow balance his family’s need for livable shelter with their need for his physical presence.

Giffels’ prose makes this journey from Kid-to-Man and Hulk-to-House a wonderful read. Just listen to this, about a trip to the giant home-improvement store.

I came here for three things:

1. a can of expanding sealant, that magical stuff;

2. another three bags of mortar because this much I’ve learned:

a single bag of mortar is a fool’s errand; and

3: possibly a hinge.

The hinge is a lark…It’s heavy and antique and I know I will not find one here. But I have to look.

Looking for something we don’t think we’ll find—this is an understanding we share here in the wilds of the superstore.

We are people afraid of what might happen if our lives became comfortable.

We are people who don’t know nearly as much as we want the world to believe we know.

We are fathers. We are desperate to understand our place among people who desperately need us.

Our ambition is complicated…

I’ve stopped now, between Lighting and Doors.

A hinge—is it “hardware” or “fastener”?

We do not ask. We seek and discover. We, in the aisles: we are seekers and discoverers. This is our frontier. This is what we have left.

My one complaint about this delightful book is the lack of pictures. How did this get published without pictures? I mean, really!

And this is why I love the Internet. I Googled Mr. Giffels and found this wonderful slideshow.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/17/garden/20080417akron

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Now we can sit back, enjoy the before and after photos, and pretend it’s as easy as the television shows make it look!

Blessings on you!

Marilyn