Trap

Trap Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka, Hayley Mills and Alison Pill

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

What’s Good: The film creates a great atmosphere of tension that combined with the silly dialogue and plot points makes for a fun watch

What’s Bad: The first act meanders a bit, but the short running time makes up for it

Loo Break: The film doesn’t overstay its welcome, so only the first ten minutes of the film feel like a safe space to go to the loon before you start missing vital information.

Watch or Not?: Yes, because, while it might not be theater worthy at times, it is actually a very fun thriller to watch with other people and guess what will happen.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 105 Minutes.

User Rating:

M. Night Shyamalan has had one impressive career; starting with being the new Hollywood wonder boy with the release of the Sixth Sense and then making everything fall apart with The Last Airbender. M. Night Shyamalan’s has been a true rollercoaster, but it is great to actually see him now comfortable with what he does best, and in the case of Trap, a thriller that knows how to manage expectations and then go against them while constructing a fun character to follow through the entire time.

Trap Movie Review: Script Analysis

M. Night Shyamalan made himself famous with films like Signs, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village, films that were created around a cool premise to then destroy that premise with one of his famous plot twists. However, at one point the trick started to lose impact and M. Night Shyamalan found himself being predictable, which sometimes can end up being boring as well, and so after a few years of experiencing the world of blockbusters, M. Night Shyamalan has come back with one of his thrillers but one that has no twist at all, and is still quite good.

Trap is not M. Night Shyamalan’s best film, but it is proof that the director can write a solid story and have fun with it, and this is the first thing that will jump at you while watching Trap. It is fun and silly, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and that is what makes each ridiculous plot point just work, alongside a couple of very funny lines that will make you laugh with pleasure. It doesn’t really matter if being funny was intended or not, it just is, and the contrast between the humor and the darker premise make for a good combination.

Not having a big twist and actually telling you in the first few minutes of the film what is actually happening is a bold decision but one that ends up working as a huge Chekhov’s gun, meaning that an element of danger has been introduced to the plot, and now you just have to wait and see how it is going to be used. The film manages to create a fun feeling of claustrophobia around our main character, and this makes for a good contrast with the actual size of the venue where the story takes place.

However, while there is a lot of fun in the way the story is written, M. Night Shyamalan also tries, or at least it seems to, go to a deeper place inside the main character’s psychology, but this element feels half-baked, and while it explains some things about him, the amount of time used for it never seems to amount to much, and it all seems quite shallow. This alongside a meandering first half in terms of plot, make the film a bit scattered in places, but thankfully the second half brings all the good elements back into the fold.

Trap Movie Review: Star Performance

Just like M. Night Shyamalan, Josh Hartnett has had a very crazy career, starting as a leading man in rom-coms and even some blockbusters, Hartnett would later evolve into an indie actor to then disappear for a while, and come back as a character actor, able to do basically everything if given the chance, and M. Night Shyamalan has done just that, allowing Hartnett to express himself as a terrifying, calculating, but also a tender serial killer. The character is a strange combination, but Hartnett makes it work thanks to his confidence and excellent humorist delivery.

The rest of the cast does well, especially Donoghue as Riley, Harnett’s character’s daughter in the film, she and Hartnett have a lot of chemistry, and they truly feel like father and daughter. Meanwhile, M. Night Shyamalan’s own daughter Saleka also has a big part in the film, and while her acting is not the best, she does her best as this pop-star that is more than meets the eye. It is also great to see Alison Pill in a small but scene stealer role.