Trap: Safe but Solid
Most of my criticism of M. Night Shyamalan is what he does include in his stories, but it’s rare I take issue with what he doesn’t include. For the director of The Sixth Sense, The Village & Split ( among many other things) I never expected Trap to play it as safe as it does. I spent almost the entire runtime even down to the last scene wondering when that signature Shyamalan twist would arise, whether it be a supernatural twist or something to change my perspective on the story I’d just experienced but it never came. I’m not suggesting that without a twist or some grand reveal a story has no merit, but it's become synonymous with Shyamalan at this point, and without it, the holes in this Trap begin to show.
The main plot of Trap was fairly nonsensical, I couldn’t buy into the premise at the start, and as more was revealed I found it even harder to make sense of how any of this could be considered even remotely realistic. Realism is not something I considered essential ( especially not in a Shyamalan flick). Still, the rest of the film was so mundanely grounded, that it is easy to become irritated with the ridiculousness of the plot at times. There were times when Josh Hartnett's protagonist (Cooper) was performing miracles that would make priests blush out of sheer luck, but at times when the tension & stakes of the movie were high, they were easy to overlook, but as the 3rd act begins and continues to push the envelope on what we will accept, Coopers ‘careful planning’ becomes outright movie magic.
The setting of the film is not only unique but very well done, the concert backdrop of the first 2 acts felt like a real busy concert, and the main act Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) who is this movies Taylor Swift, performs almost entire acts as though you were at a concert, an idea that is interesting the first time but becomes a little too much as you realize Shyamalan may have given his daughters music a bit too much screen time. Even with a little too much Lady Raven music, the claustrophobic setting of the concert for Cooper who wants nothing more than to escape this ‘Trap’ is shot very close to him and others, making you feel as though you are trapped with him. As good as the concert setting is, however, I think Shyamalan could have done more with it as we spend most of our time back at Cooper's seat with his daughter, just listening to Lady Raven as Cooper scans the crowd.
The saving grace of this film and the reason I’m writing a review at all instead of dismissing this film for its arguably large list of flaws, is the resurging Josh Hartnett. He gives an absolutely incredible and dynamic performance. He plays two roles in this film, the doting father and the clinical ‘Butcher’. He plays the father so well that I was expecting the Shyamalan twist to be that he was not the bad guy and that something bigger was at play, but when the end of the 2nd act rolls around, he has devolved into a much colder and stranger character, almost leaving entirely behind the character he was playing until now and embracing the calculated killer we had seen only glimpses of until this point. His charismatic and energetic character kept me engaged even when the film was in another music act, or bending the laws of reality. With a better film behind him, Hartnett could have given us an all-time performance, but he works well with the stage he was given and his performance won’t be soon forgotten ( even if the film will be)
Ultimately Trap is a mediocre movie with several plot conveniences to make the story move forward that is carried in part by its setting but mostly by Hartnett's performance. I give credit to Shyamalan for his original idea ( which are in short supply in modern film) but I think this film could have benefitted from one of his signature twists and less of his daughters music, catchy as it may be.
