Trap
Trap is playing in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 14+.
In writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is a dad looking to impress his daughter by taking her to the hottest concert in town. It just so happens he's also a serial killer, and the concert is a trap designed to capture him. He’s got to avoid being caught by the police, break out of the arena, all while making sure he gets his daughter some sweet concert swag.
STORY: D
Some uninspired storytelling wastes a great premise.
The combo of this film’s trailer and Shyamalan’s two previous films set some Everest level expectations for this movie. Disappointment sets in once you realize Trap isn’t going to meet those high expectations.
But what’s worse, is that as the film rolls on, and as we realize the film wouldn’t (shouldn’t? … couldn’t?) meet anyone’s lowest expectations, that disappointment puts our dreams in a headlock and gives them a bruising, 105 minute-long noogie.
THE SCOOP: Check out Trap’s IMDb page, here.
PEOPLE: D
Bad acting looks a lot like acting. Great acting doesn’t look like acting at all.
Every performance here is stereotype-heavy. The only interesting one comes from Josh Hartnett (and to be fair, it’s a pretty entertaining turn). Cooper at least bounces between three distinct stereotypes: the overly smarmy sociopath, a terrifying killer, and a cringey girl-dad trying to get in his daughter’s good graces.
CAST PARTY: Check out Josh Hartnett’s appearance on The Tonight Show, here. (7 mins)
FILM NERD STUFF: C+
The camerawork keeps things interesting with its framing.
Shyamalan often splits Hartnett’s face with the right edge of the frame. Seeing only half of Cooper’s face reinforces his split life, his split psyche, and it reminds us that he never reveals his full self to anyone.
I also found the numerous close ups interesting (even if they’re a bit overly-numerous). And there is a fantastic diopter shot where Hartnett is in full focus in the foreground and the chief FBI hunter is in full focus far in the background. It amplifies the scene’s tension very effectively.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Check out American Popcorn’s behind the scenes tour, here. (7 mins)
ELECTIVE CLASS (Where’s the Wow?): D-
A fatal flaw in the storytelling prevents us from fully investing in the film.
A serial killer trying to escape from a stadium packed full with 30,000 screaming teenagers sounds like an exciting story at first. But there’s one problem: we don’t want serial killers to escape. Am I wrong?
The golden era of TV embraced the idea of the anti-hero. Tony Soprano. Walter White. We rooted for these horrible people because we were given an inside view of their humanity. We knew them intimately, and while we rarely agreed with their actions, we certainly could relate to them.
Cooper does not qualify as a quality anti-hero because we never get a chance to know him. Therefore, we never see him as anything but an evil murderer. We never care about him, and therefore we never care about what should be a thrilling, deadly cat and mouse game.
FINAL COMMENTS:
The Shyamalan-aissance screeches to a halt. After Old and Knock at the Cabin, I was fully onboard that train. I’m hoping Trap turns out to be just a brief stop before it gets rolling again. I believe it will.
There’s no reason not to believe in Shyamalan. He’s a top level filmmaker who possesses all the tools necessary to wow us once more some day.