Trap
At this point, M. Night Shyamalan is someone an audience is either going to vibe with, or they will not. I’m interested enough in his ideas to where I’ll watch whatever he does, but I’m never going to get stoked for another run like “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs.” I think he’s capable of great filmmaking, but in his writing, his approach has gotten fairly predictable. I think “Trap” is a great example of that.
There’s a part of me that wishes the trailers for “Trap” did not reveal as much as they did. Shyamalan is the ultimate “puzzle box” filmmaker of the modern day, someone whose films always rely on a twist, or our lack of awareness of the world he is creating. In the ads for “Trap,” we know right away the initial game he is playing- Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a father who is taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to a concert of her favorite artist, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, the director’s own daughter). While he’s there, we see him checking in on a hostage he is keeping in a cellar. He is noticing a strong police presence, and a vendor lets him in on why- the FBI caught wind that a killer, The Butcher, was going to be at the concert, and they are intent on making sure he doesn’t leave. Now, Cooper must figure out how to exit the building without drawing suspicion.
Shyamalan’s approach to the concert is very Hitchcockian in how he builds the tension between Cooper’s sociopathic pursuits and his responsibility as a father to Riley. This is some of Shyamalan’s best filmmaking in ages, with the way he and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom use camera placement and movement is exceptional. Their framing of characters is essential to the suspense being built, and it is thrilling to watch. As Cooper, Hartnett is brilliant in how he conveys menace, psychological gamesmanship and caring for his daughter. As he says several times throughout the film, he is quite good at keeping the two sides of his life separate. How long that stays being the case is dependent on how everything shakes out.
Over his last few films, I find myself growing tired with the extremes in Shyamalan’s writing in how he pulls off his “twists.” “Knock at the Cabin” was helped, I think, by not being an original story by the writer-director, but each of his last original films- “Glass,” “Old” and now “Trap”- feel like he’s drawing things out a bit longer than he needs to in order to get the desired impact. In “Trap,” I think the most important parts of his big swings pay off very well, but they also go back and forth with ideas that are inexplicable and downright silly. It doesn’t help that his daughter plays a big part in the finale, and while she holds her own in pop star mode (being one herself in real life), his direction of her as an actress leaves a lot to be desired, especially in one sequence that strains believability for how long it lasts. Much more effective is the dynamic between Cooper and his wife, played by Alison Pill, where vulnerability is the emotion being conveyed; this is something Shyamalan has always been great in getting out of his actors, and it makes everything we see before feel worthwhile.
I would not say “Trap” is one of Shyamalan’s best films overall, but it might be my favorite of his in quite a while. I wouldn’t mind seeing how a rewatch changes my feelings of the film. I can see myself liking it more.
