Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Spencer
Breslin, Ashlyn Sanchez, Betty Buckley Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
U.S.
Opening Date: June 13th, 2008
THEY SAY
From director M. Night
Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) comes a
lightning-paced, heart-pounding paranoid thriller about a family on the run from
an inexplicable and unstoppable event that threatens not only humankind . . .
but the most basic human instinct of them all: survival.
It begins with no clear
warning. It seems to come out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, episodes of
strange, chilling deaths that defy reason and boggle the mind in their shocking
destructiveness, erupt in major American cities. What is causing this sudden,
total breakdown of human behavior? Is it some kind of new terrorist attack, an
experiment gone wrong, a diabolical toxic weapon, an out-of-control virus? Is it
being transmitted by air, by water . . . how?
For Philadelphia high school
science teacher Elliot Moore (Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg) what matters
most is finding a way to escape the mysterious and deadly phenomenon. Though he
and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel) are in the midst of a marital crisis, they
hit the road, first by train, then by car, with Elliot’s math teacher friend
Julian (Emmy Award winner John Leguizamo) and his 8 year-old daughter Jess (Ashlyn
Sanchez), heading for the Pennsylvania farmlands where they hope they’ll be out
of reach of the grisly, ever-growing attacks. Yet it soon becomes clear that no
one – and nowhere – is safe. This terrifying, invisible killer cannot be outrun.
It is only when Elliot begins to discover the true nature of what is lurking out
there – and just what has unleashed this force that threatens the future of
humanity - that he discovers a sliver of hope that his fragile family might be
able to escape what is happening.
WE SAY
Is M. Night Shyamalan the ultimate one-trick pony?
Does this director have more than good movie in him? It doesn’t seem to
be. Since he splashed onto the scene back in 1999 with Sixth Sense
he foisted up the world hydrophobic aliens invading a planet consisting
mostly of water (Signs) and one of the most
predictable "surprise" endings ever (The
Village). The less said about Lady in the
Water, the better. We live in hope as the director’s output does have
its occasional moments of brilliance and maybe he’ll live up to the
promise of Sixth Sense one day —
or has he simply used up all his good ideas? We’ll see . . .
