Title: Trap
Describe This Movie In One Return of the Jedi Quote:
ADMIRAL ACKBAR: It’s a … nah, you know what? I can’t do it.
Brief Plot Synopsis: Serial killers can be good girl dads too.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2 Reubens out of 5.
Tagline: “30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.”
Better Tagline: “300 cops? Guess the victims were white.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) is making his daughter Riley’s (Ariel Donoghue) dreams come true by talking her to a concert by her favorite artist, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). What Riley doesn’t know if her father is actually a serial killer known as “The Butcher.” And what Cooper doesn’t know — but susses out soon enough — is that the concert is a carefully planned scheme to take him into police custody.
“Critical” Analysis: M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director of Trap, has been making movies long enough for his career to come full circle. From early triumphs (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) to diminishing returns (The Village), to rock bottom (The Happening, After Earth), to false hope (Split) to “nope, still not great” (Glass). Does MNS’s latest represent a return to classic M. Night form?
Before we get to that, it should be noted that 2024 has now given us two Shyamalan movies. Recall that M. Night’s daughter Ishana’s debut The Watchers dropped back in June. That lackluster effort didn’t do much to quiet criticism of so-called nepo babies. And now that you mention it, neither will eldest daughter Saleka’s … extended performance here.
Trap wasn’t screened for the press, so if this review comes across as abrupt, it’s because your easily distracted reviewer only saw it yesterday afternoon. Generally speaking, when movies are withheld from advance scrutiny, it’s not a good thing. And this fait accompli already seems to have played out with Harold and the Purple Crayon, which is receiving … let’s call them less than raves.
As for Trap, it’s about what you’d expect from Shyamalan at this point. Some intriguing ideas and interesting direction hobbled by this weird insistence on overexplaining absolutely everything. This isn’t helped by how he farts around for a good half hour before getting to the action.
Calling it “overexplaining” isn’t an exaggeration. There’s a scene where the FBI profiler (Hayley Mills) informs the assembled cops that they’re moving to “Contingency Four” of the capture plan, and then proceeds to regurgitate exactly what that means, presumably for our benefit. Lady Raven also improbably (and perhaps inevitably) ends up playing a key role in the plot.
But not before MNS gives himself another bit part. It’s less indulgent than Lady in the Water, at least.
Hartnett does what he can, making Cooper almost believable as a devoted father who just happens to be someone who, as the T-shirt vendor puts it, “deli preps” his victims. Shyamalan doesn’t give him much to work with, and his dialogue (especially with Donoghue at the concert) is cringe-worthy. The highlight of the whole film might be the bit part played by Kid Cudi in absolute diva/bitch mode.
The big twist about Trap is … there is no twist. One might have hoped a more straightforward story would play to Shyamalan’s strengths, but aside from Hartnett, Donoghue, and an underused Alison Pill, the film’s once again dragged down by the writer/director’s persistent inability to leave anything to the imagination.
On top of that, there’s no excuse for making Saleka such a central part of the finished product. Not only do we get her third act turn into a master detective, she also sings almost *five* full songs, each of which brings any tension in the arena to a shuddering halt. Shyamalan seems to have found himself a nice little niche where he can elevate his family and make movies about his native Philadelphia, except he hasn’t made any effort to improve his dialogue or basic storytelling.
Trap is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
