Review: It’s not hard to see where the ‘trap’ is heading

AAt this point, some 30 years into M. Night Shyamalan’s career, it’s easy to feel some grudging affection for his films, even if you’ve historically hated them or felt indifferent toward them. They tend to be short. Occasionally the twists are clever. He prefers slow-paced suspense over horror. He’s a director who cares about what he gives the audience, even if that means he sometimes gets caught up in his desire to please.

Trap It’s not Shyamalan’s worst film; no one would say it’s the best. It’s suspended somewhere in the obscure middle, but at least it has some friendly silliness. Josh Hartnett plays Cooper, a devoted Philadelphia father who is fulfilling a promise to his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue): as a reward for getting excellent grades, he takes her to see his favorite pop star, the immensely popular Lady Raven (played by pop singer Saleka Shyamalan, daughter of the director). On the way to the stadium and as they enter, Cooper does everything right, including spending money for a concert t-shirt and asking predictably clueless questions about current children’s slang. (Riley tells him matter-of-factly what crunchy means.) He also learns, from a friendly T-shirt salesman (played, with vigorous bonhomie, by Jonathan Langdon), that the authorities have discovered an apparently uncatchable serial killer – known, for reasons that don’t require much imagination, as The Butcher – has a ticket for the night’s festivities. The place is surrounded by police officers who promised to catch the sick man.

See more information: Every M. Night Shyamalan Twist, Ranked

This is everything you need and should know about the plot of Trap. Shyamalan’s direction is professional here: you can see him pulling all the levers, inserting a revealing shot here, an “Oh no, really?”Character reaction there. You can guess where he’s going, although you might still find some surprises in how he gets there. There are countless implausibilities and plenty of “inside the mind of a criminal” nonsense – but then, this It is a film by M. Night Shyamalan. Kid Cudi gets a cameo as a gorgeous, dazzling superstar known as The Thinker. Saleka Shyamalan, with false eyelashes almost as long as her tall silver boots, is convincing as a pop star capable of captivating a wide audience, and perhaps less so as an inadvertent hunter of serial killers; Still, she does her best. And Hartnett, an often charming actor, is a ridiculous and loving father – although he is also able to navigate the shift into darker territory.

And there’s also a performance by former child star Hayley Mills, in a very small role, as a no-nonsense criminal profiler. If you had told me, when I was a kid, around 1965, that someday we would all walk around with miniature computer-communication devices in our pockets, I would have said: OK, plausible. A billionaire and TV personality being elected president despite having no qualifications for the job? Of course, this can happen. But Hayley Mills The parent trap, the trouble with angels, It is That damn cat! taking dark, professional pleasure in hitting an elusive criminal with a bunch of small, electrically charged harpoons? What I wouldn’t have bought it. It could be the biggest of Trapthere are few pleasures. But it’s something.