Trap is writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's latest. It's gotten lots of buzz because of its dynamic trailers, which depict a father and daughter attending a Britney Spears-ish concert surrounded by police due to a serial killer reputedly in the stadium. It appears the dad might, in fact, be the killer, the Butcher, but then, hey, this is a Shyamalan movie. There's got to be a catch, and there is, though maybe more of a few clever, twisty turns, but I'm not gonna ruin any of it.
It's Shyamalan's execution that makes this one thrive. If one believes that the father, played by Josh (30 Days of Night) Hartnett, is truly the Butcher (and there's every bloody indication to believe he is), one must invest in his sly antics and therefore, embrace his desperate journey. Think of it along the lines of Norman Bates covering up Mother's deeds. As we watch, we find ourselves rooting for the antagonist. It's a peculiar angle, but in the realm of sinister make-believe, it does work.
Hartnett is damn good in his role and has to be, since his character occupies most of the feature. For the record, this isn't Hartnett's first, serial-killer rodeo. He costarred in Halloween H20, but unlike his supporting spot in that Michael Myers, alternate sequel, Hartnett's Cooper (he only goes by one name) pushes Shyamalan's escapade with full-throttle beads on the brow. Harnett does this by implementing a careful duality, with one front performing as the gracious father to Ariel (Wolf Like Me) Donohue's chipper Riley, and on the other front, zigzagging about as three hundred police close in.
The rest of the cast complements its leads well, with appearances by Alison Pill, Lochlan Miller, Marnie McPhail, Vanessa Smythe, Jonathan Langdon, Kid Cudi, Parker Wayne, Joseph Daily, the immutable Hayley Mills of Parent Trap fame (get the nod?) as a high-profile profiler, Mr. Shyamalan as Lady Raven's amiable uncle and Saleka Shyamalan as the Lady Raven. (Saleka is, in fact, M. Night's real-life daughter and an actual R&B singer outside her portrayal of the featured, pop sensation. To boot, Saleka's Lady Raven, performance segments are nothing short of gosh-darn exquisite, and fourteen of the melodious tunes were written by her. I mean, damn!)
Though Trap's conceptualization isn't by a stretch run-of-the-mill, its suspense mimics the nail-biting escalation of Breakdown, Dying Room Only, Running Time, Ransom, Rope and either version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. If one accepts Hartnett as the veritable killer, then it's arguable that the story is as much a high-adrenalin Columbo, though devoid of an equivalent interrogator.
I found Trap to be magnetic, mesmerizing and huge fun. Once it has you by the throat (and rest assured, it will), you'll definitely feel trapped, though in the most, entertained way. 😁
Just for the record: Beyond the Norman Bates example (whether in PSYCHO or its follow-ups), Terence Stamp in THE COLLECTOR and Joseph Cotton in THE STEEL TRAP depict characters doing wrong, but one gets so involved in their methodologies that one ends up granting them empathy. Heck, the same can be said of Mickey Rooney in QUICKSAND (though his slip into crime is minor with subsequent missteps). I suppose that Joaquin Phoenix in JOKER works as another example, in which the overlap of madness and ghastly criminality are fringed by inadvertent circumstances and with that, the character wins empathy in a number of scenes.
ReplyDeleteGetting back to PSYCHO, I suppose it's easy to want Marion Crane to get away with her theft, but then comeuppance sure as hell hits before her intended remedy.
DeleteAnother film in this vein also stars Cotton, the western, THE HELLBENDERS, in which the characters are vile, with a vile intent, and yet there are times when one forgets this, when one ends up rooting for them, until a sense of reality (or morality) settles in.
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