Trap review

TRAP: 

JOSH HARTNETT KILLS IN CHAOTIC SHYAMALAN THRILLER! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Josh Hartnett in Trap

 

            The likely self-proclaimed Master of Twists, M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable trilogy, Signs) is back with one Hell of a trap in…Trap, his latest thriller and the second Shyamalan-related film released this year after Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers a couple months prior. I’m sure I went over this in some of my other Shyamalan movie reviews, but I think he’s a very fascinating director given his clearly active imagination because you never know what you’re going to get from him. 

            Sometimes you’ll get something great like The Sixth Sense, the first two installments of the Unbreakable trilogy, or Knock at the Cabin and other times you’ll get something so fascinatingly and entertainingly bad that they must be seen to be believed like Lady in the Water and The Happening…or the occasional in the middle Shyamalan movie like The Village, Glass, or Old. With the exceptions of his film adaptation of The Last Airbender and After Earth, you’re almost always guaranteed to get something entertaining from him whether intentional or not and the same can be said for Trap. 

            This movie is goddamn nuts and sure it’s not on the same level of enjoyably bad as Lady in the Water or The Happening, I was entertained throughout thanks to the manic performance of Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down, Sin City, Oppenheimer) as a dad who’s secretly a serial killer. For me, it’d be in the same boat as The Village, Glass, and Old on the Shyamalan totem pole. 

            The film follows Cooper Adams (Hartnett), a father who is taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert of her favorite singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan; who also wrote and performed the songs for this movie). However, it turns out this concert is actually a trap with very beefed up security to catch a notorious serial killer known as The Butcher who is reportedly in attendance…and also happens to be Cooper (That’s not a spoiler because it was in the trailers!). 

            With that knowledge, Cooper tries to figure a way out of the arena without his daughter or anyone else catching onto what he’s actually doing. 

            The film also stars Alison Pill (Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Miss Sloane, Vice) as Cooper’s wife Rachel Adams, Hayley Mills (Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, That Darn Cat!) as Dr. Josephine Grant, Jonathan Langdon (Run the Burbs, Game On, Utopia Falls) as Jamie, and Kid Cudi (Don’t Look Up, X, Knuckles) as Thinker. 

            Overall, Trap will probably be a new black sheep in Shyamalan’s filmography as it isn’t nearly as hilariously bad as some of his other trainwrecks nor is it among his best projects. It’s a middle of the road Shyamalan movie with an intriguing premise, a scene-stealing Josh Hartnett performance that’s probably the best thing in the moments and moments of Shyamalan’s awkward direction and hilarity which will either work for you or it won’t. 

            For my money (Though I actually saw it for free), I had a good time with this movie, got some laughs, and was invested in the story and Hartnett’s character. The film kept me on edge and wondering where it was going because it is such an odd premise that it’s difficult to predict what everything is leading up to. 

            Josh Hartnett is giving probably the best performance I’ve ever seen from him as a father who is trying to hide the fact he’s a serial killer and does a great job flipflopping between being charming and likable to demented and crazy. Seriously, if it weren’t for him this movie wouldn’t have worked so I’m grateful for his involvement. 

            For the first half I was with it, but then it goes downhill by the time a certain other character becomes more prominent in the story and the film loses a lot of its momentum from earlier. Characters making dumbfounded decisions, a climax consisting of multiple ending points that just keep going and get worse as they go on, and some of the acting from other actors later on becoming terrible. 

            But unlike The Watchers where it becomes a dull slog in the last third, I was still entertained by how bad the movie gets in the final act and Josh Hartnett still remains a joy to watch from start to finish. It’s a film that starts off as an okay thriller and then becomes a completely insane trainwreck as it progresses in which your enjoyment of it will depend on your tolerance for Shyamalan filmmaking both good and bad.

            Trap is still a huge step up from The Last Airbender and After Earth in terms of entertainment value, but it certainly fails at recapturing M. Night Shyamalan’s glory days and even living up to some of his more recent hits like The Visit, Split, and Knock at the Cabin. If you’re a fan of Shyamalan’s work regardless of quality and especially of Josh Hartnett, you’ll definitely want to fall into this “Trap” for a head-scratching good time at the movies.