Trap Still Offers a Few Pleasures Even If You Know Exactly Where It’s Going
At this stage, roughly 30 years into M. Night Shyamalan’s career, it’s easy to feel a grudging fondness for his films, even if you’ve historically disliked or been indifferent towards them. His movies tend to be brief, and sometimes the twists are ingenious. He prefers slow-building suspense over gore. He’s a director who cares about his audience, even if his eagerness to please sometimes leads him to stumble.
Table of Contents
Plot Overview
“Trap” isn’t Shyamalan’s worst film; it’s not his best either. It sits somewhere in the murky middle but has a certain amiable goofiness. Josh Hartnett stars as Cooper, a devoted Philadelphia father fulfilling a promise to his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue): she earned stellar grades, so he’s taking her to see her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (played by the director’s daughter, Saleka Shyamalan).
Characters and Setting
On their way to the concert, Cooper is the quintessential dad, buying a concert T-shirt and asking clueless questions about current slang. Riley patiently explains terms to him (like what “crispy” means). They encounter a friendly T-shirt vendor (Jonathan Langdon), who informs them that authorities have learned that a notorious serial killer, The Butcher, has a ticket for the concert. The venue is surrounded by police determined to catch the killer.
Direction and Execution
Shyamalan’s direction here is methodical: he’s pulling all the strings, with calculated shots and predictable character reactions. You can guess the movie’s trajectory, though there are a few surprises along the way. The film is filled with implausibilities and clichés about the criminal mind, but that’s typical for a Shyamalan movie.
Kid Cudi makes a cameo as a flamboyant superstar known as The Thinker. Saleka Shyamalan, in dramatic false eyelashes and tall silver boots, is convincing as a pop star who captivates a huge audience, though less so as an accidental serial-killer catcher. Hartnett, a usually charming actor, shines as a doting, if slightly ridiculous, dad, while also navigating the shift into darker territory.
Notable Performances
Hayley Mills, a former child star, makes a notable appearance in a small role as a no-nonsense criminal profiler. The idea of Mills, known for her roles in “The Parent Trap,” “The Trouble with Angels,” and “That Darn Cat!” taking grim pleasure in zapping a criminal with tiny electrically charged harpoons, is an unexpected delight. It may be the greatest of “Trap’s” modest pleasures, but it’s something.
Trap: Movie Review
Josh Hartnett is Earnest in M. Night Shyamalan’s Insipid Thriller
“Trap” is an exercise in squandered potential and misguided ambition, delivering a pedestrian experience that even Josh Hartnett’s earnest performance can’t save.
6.2/10IMDb
Trap scored 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb.48%Rotten Tomatoes
Trap scored 48 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.67%Metacritic
Shyamalan recently shared on Instagram a humorous encounter with a fan, who held up a sign featuring a blurry still from the infamous birthday party alien footage in “Signs” with the caption, “Thank you for the childhood trauma.”
Unfortunately, in “Trap,” Shyamalan’s biggest twist seems to be his inability to recapture the creative spark that once made him a promising voice in Hollywood. The tragedy of “Trap” — like many of Shyamalan’s recent films — is that the once-visionary filmmaker appears to be experiencing a drought of creative inspiration.