Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Producer: Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock, M. Night Shyamalan
Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Alison Pill
Review Score:
Summary:
A secret serial killer must find a way to escape authorities after discovering a pop concert he's attending with his daughter hides an elaborate sting to capture him.
Review:
Alfred Hitchcock made a name for himself with high-concept thrillers, so called that because such films are based on premises with simple hooks as opposed to period melodrama, character studies, or arthouse aesthetics. His hooks were often gimmicky, too. "Lifeboat" confined itself entirely inside the titular watercraft. "Rope" later took "contained location" to another creative level by not only setting its story inside one apartment, but by cleverly blocking and editing footage to look like it was filmed in one continuous take.
This brand of crafty B-movie disguised beneath big studio banners had another heyday in the 1990s. During that decade, Hollywood rolled out a wave of concept-driven mysteries like "Nick of Time," which unfolded over 90 minutes in real time, and "Breakdown," where Kurt Russell tracks down a trucker who abducted his wife in broad daylight from the side of a road.
"Trap" appears to be another stab into this subgenre from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. As a high-concept thriller, this means viewers can expect an imaginative plot centered around a singular idea, but they must also brace for absurb amounts of implausibility, without which this style of suspense simply cannot function with its seemingly grounded yet actually fantastical fiction.
Whether you know this ahead of time, or only find out within the first 10 or 15 minutes, "Trap" follows Cooper, a firefighter and father who's secretly a serial killer known as "The Butcher." Cooper brings his daughter Riley to a crowded sports arena to see her favorite performer, Lady Raven, a pop star on par with Taylor Swift. Noticing a sizable police presence both inside and outside the venue, Cooper learns from a merch table cashier that the feds found out The Butcher is in the building, and the concert currently doubles as a sting operation to take Cooper into custody as soon as they identify him. Cooper now needs to find a way out without his daughter discovering his dark secret.
While Cooper desperately searches for an escape route, viewers desperately need to put disbelief into a deep freeze, because preposterous developments pile up in a hurry. Jamie, the kindly merch table attendant, quickly becomes Cooper's unwitting ally. When Cooper asks to accompany Jamie to a storage closet to retrieve a shirt in his daughter's size, Jamie immediately abandons his current customer and enthusiastically replies, "Sure, sure, sure," the way concession stand employees so often do when a stranger asks to enter an employees-only area. Swiping Jamie's keycard turns out to be so easy, Cooper puts his sticky fingers on a walkie-talkie that enables him to stay a step ahead of a dogged FBI profiler's radioed instructions, too. You know the profiler means business since she has the stature of Dexter's mother, speaking solemnly in an English accent while generally exhibiting a straight-spined, no-nonsense demeanor.
As if armed SWAT operatives in every stairwell and at every exit weren't enough of an obstacle, Cooper also hurdles more mundane humps in the form of the mother of Riley's estranged friend, who twice attempts to nag Cooper about brokering peace between the two bickering girls. I've unexpectedly run into friends at a concert before, although it doesn't often happen at places with a 20,000-person capacity, and certainly not more than once in the same evening.
I've heard disappointed voices moan about "Trap" taking its action out of the arena, which happens just short of the one-hour mark, and which some see as a cheat for the "contained thriller" formula. Really though, Cooper's efforts to create distractions that result in rushing into yet another dead end grow stale in short order. Shyamalan undoubtedly realized he couldn't sustain suspense by repeatedly recycling similar scenarios where Cooper sweet talks his way past security or arranges an accident so he can slip by. There's arguably too much of that already, although I'd argue "Trap" exhausts more minutes on redundant concert footage. However, that's something you've just got to let go since "Trap" is as much of a vehicle for Josh Hartnett as it is an indulgent showcase for the music of Shyamalan's daughter Saleka Night Shyamalan, a rising pop singer who plays the role of Lady Raven.
Another thing you've got to let go of is the notion that "Trap" could in any way be considered realistic. I cannot stress enough how much this movie cannot be treated like a serious crime procedural. "North by Northwest" doesn't hold up to sensible scrutiny either, but it doesn't matter there any more than it does here. You just have to see "Trap" for the sometimes-silly escapist entertainment it is. Take it as a film manufactured for a night of flighty fun like only cinema can create and you'll be fine.
When Shyamalan's career concludes, "Trap" should float safely above the midline in his filmography. That might not be high enough for fans expecting a signature twist, which "Trap" does not have, or a landmark entry for his lengthening resume. Personally, I prefer this pattern of Shyamalan getting out from under the assumption that his stories have to hinge on shocking reveals, and instead delivering something down to earth in execution, even if it's way out in space with its setup.
NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.
Review Score: 65
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