Trap Review

"Trap" gained some traction ahead of release by seemingly having a twist in its debut trailer. This is of course par for the course for writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, who is known for this sort of thing. In it, we watch Cooper (Josh Hartnett) as he takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert. Concerned over all the security guards, cops, swat, etc., he asks souvenir clerk Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) what's up- turns out, the whole show is a trap for a serial killer known as "The Butcher." Oh I'm sorry that's not the twist- that's that Cooper is the killer.

It's a great premise, even if it doesn't make a ton of sense when you stop and think about it. For one, we see an FBI profiler (Hayley Mills) throughout, telling her men to screen every male at the venue upon exit. You're telling me that they're going to screen thousands of men as they leave? I question the logistics of that plan, but it gets sillier: at one point Cooper acquires a police radio and listens in to their conversations, which is wild to me that they'd speak so freely over the air, which a quick interwebs search tells me is open to the public in Pennsylvania where this film takes place, surely they know he's smart enough to get a hold of that. (They also aren't smart enough to notice their equipment missing, but whatever.)

More unbelievable things happen without getting into spoilers, such as how Cooper lurks around the stadium looking for an exit. At one point he triggers a contained oil explosion to burn a food worker, distracting the guards so he can scope out the roof. He's stopped, and lucks into knowing the password (thanks Jamie) and having the right keycard (thanks apron left by chance nearby), but apparently this is not suspicious enough, even with his lies. That'd be fine once, but another time he's seen "checking" the coffee while the swat team is briefed. He talks to everyone like he's their friend, which again, sure whatever. But later on, when the singer "Lady Raven" (writer/director's own daughter Saleka Shyamalan, in some classic Hollywood nepotism) picks an attendee to go up on stage with her, literally putting Cooper in everyone's eye. Somehow, all these men and women in uniform just somehow don't see or remember him. Or how they don't bother checking all the cameras everywhere to see if, oh I dunno, he's done anything unusual. What a funny convenience I'd say.

A lot has been said about Hartnett, with some calling this his "comeback" picture, but I walked away unimpressed. He's clearly trying too hard to be charming and then too hard to be creepy, without it feeling natural. He's serviceable I suppose, but since the whole film, warts and all, rests on his performance to convince us that it's all really happening, his shortcomings are all the more disappointing.

Then there's the ending, which leading up to the climatic reveal, I had made my own guesses. I was wrong, of course, but that's only because I was coming up with actual narrative switcheroos. Instead, we watch the film come to a conclusion by matter of chances so outlandish that I could almost hear the audience groan. But wait, the film keeps going, only for another incidental moment to happen. And then another, and I think one more after that. It is all so convoluted that it all fails to register as an actual twist, with things happening like an episode of Murder She Wrote, only without Mrs. Potts and one F-word dropped as allowed by its PG-13 rating.