Trap: The BRWC Review

9th August 2024

Trap: The BRWC Review. By Samhith Ankam.

Much of, if not all of, Trap gleefully follows Josh Hartnett walking his way through situations with filmic ingenuity; Shyamalan’s movie is often about the implausible manifesting itself perhaps because the devil is at work, or even easier of a jump surprisingly, Josh Hartnett’s character, Cooper, himself, is the devil. The trailer(s) details the basic plot – Cooper, a serial killer outlined with mysterious motives for most of the movie to create the equivalency of trying to not burden your family with your 9-5 job out of the office, takes his daughter to the Lady Raven concert, soon to realize that the concert itself is a trap for him – but this is mainly an escalating game in keeping that work/life balance apart.

The more and more he gets away with keeping his daughter happy amongst the mayhem, the more deranged the situation gets. I’ll concede to the fact that this is plotted preposterously from start to finish, but this is no “so bad it’s good” situation. Au contraire, this is Shyamalan tackling camp in the year 2024. He’s taken the goofiness from “The Happening” (2008) that was more of a result of a happy mistake (Mark Wahlberg disowning the entire project makes his line deliveries hard to reclaim under the guise of camp), and is plotting Trap with those retrospective shits and giggles… but now it just oozes confidence.

And mainly style; Sayombhu Mudkeeprom – the cinematographer for Trap, who also worked on Challengers earlier this year – beyond the tricks he’s pulling in-camera (Split-diopters and neon lighting), delivers visual information using sleight-of-hand construction, which converts the ridiculous escapes into magic tricks that are fun precisely because you have no idea how Cooper got away. While it starts with gags like pushing a drunk woman down a flight of stairs to cause distractions, the evasions from the traps (yes, plural) are where it gets extremely goofy and where the filmmaking becomes very noticeably a part of the gag. You’re simultaneously meant to go along with it, and also laugh in disbelief while questioning that disbelief – a very unique vibe for a movie and is more akin to a live performance. It’s electric in a crowd.

As usual with Shyamalan dialogue, there’s an abrasiveness to conversations that often feel like they are trying to mimic normal banter, but they’re just meant to not let you fall into hangout rhythms with these characters. Much of that comes from Hartnett trying to keep the mask of “world’s best dad” on while on edge from the heavy police activity – he’s dialed in completely in this state of abnormality while every around him tries to match/question it – and Shyamalan’s having a lot of fun with how awkward and tense and funny it all is.

As an addendum, he can write normal dialogue if need be! Saleka Shyamalan who plays Lady Raven, the pop star playing at the concert, exists adjacently to this world of stilted characters. Surprisingly going toe-to-toe with Hartnett after a certain point to catch his serial killer character, she plays against his off-kilter energy with a scream-queen sincerity that’s dynamite to watch. Time to mention the elephant in the room: Saleka is an up-and-coming popstar in real life, so the plot’s construction of a serial killer trapped with his daughter at a concert didn’t just happen by chance, nor is the fact that the movie gets absorbed in the music itself from time to time. Good music, though!

M Night writes Lady Raven into using her large platform to save lives, not just by proxy of making people emotional with her music, with perhaps the hope that Saleka, herself, will follow through with it. But, the entire idea of making a movie for his daughter is rendered as intentionally insidious here. Shyamalan cameos as Lady Raven’s uncle, who ends up putting her in harm’s way by accident, and Shyamalan, obviously a girl dad in real life, finds a parallel in Cooper – someone grappling with their love for their profession vs love for their daughter. The entire second half of this movie, which starts incorporating Cooper’s entire family in a way I won’t dare spoil, starts to find footing in how mixing the two lives is perhaps exploiting one life to support the other.

Cooper uses her daughter to escape, and Shyamalan opens the door for his daughters into the arts. This almost seems like it’s him interrogating how much of that is him being a good dad and helping them do what they love v.s. him finding a way to continue doing what he loves. Can the scales of love tip? Every act is so much of a vibe switch than the last, but it gains more and more thorniness as it goes along. Along with Old, and Knock at the Cabin, this is Shyamalan going for the jugular against his public persona. You come here for fun thrillers that are about losing your loved ones, which will always be more fulfilling than waiting for any twist could ever be.

4/5

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