Every time a new M. Night Shyamalan (Old, Split) film comes along I still find myself getting excited, even when there have been some duds. The last film I saw from him was Old and that one was most certainly a dud. Great idea, poor execution. The trailer for his latest movie - Trap, was near perfection, and even managed to have its own twist in it. This made me and my sister very interested to check it out, though the thing you need to remember about Shyamalan films nowadays is that you shouldn't always go into them expecting a huge shocking revelation at the end. Minor early spoilers to follow, but if you've seen the trailer then those early reveals won't be a surprise.
Cooper (Josh Hartnett - 30 Days of Night, The Faculty) has taken his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue - Wolf Like Me TV series) to see Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan - the director's daughter) - a very famous popstar who has millions of fans. Cooper notices that there is a weirdly heavy police presence at the arena the show is taken place at, with not only regular cops but heavily armed S.W.A.T members also in attendance. Asking a merch seller - Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) what is going on, the man reveals the authorities have had a tip-off that a brutal serial killer known as 'The Butcher' is for some reason going to be at the show, and that due to this the whole event has been turned into a trap to catch the killer. All exits are heavily guarded and all male concert goers are to be questioned and have their details recorded before they are able to leave. This turns out to be a problem for Cooper as unknown to anyone he is The Butcher! Now Cooper must use all of his skills to try and find a way to escape the trap without alerting the authorities and more importantly, without revealing his true identity to his beloved daughter.
I really loved the idea behind this, I thought having the protagonist character be the villain was very cool, it was fun seeing the various ways he tries to find an escape route. From causing distractions (via the use of unlucky innocents no less), to stealing staff key cards and police radios he desperately searches for a gap in the trap, all the time attempting to keep up the pretence of normality for his daughter's sake. This leads to a vaguely farcical feel with him constantly making up excuses to Riley as to why he has to keep leaving her alone in the arena while he stalks the outside corridors looking for an exit.
I thought that maybe the whole movie would take place at the show, but instead without going into spoilers, I would say around two thirds of the film is set there. The third act leads into a series of increasingly ridiculous situations that Cooper has to use his guile to get out of. A key criticism is that this very much operates on film logic with Cooper using the safety of being off camera to make some miraculous escapes from situations he finds himself in. This was always entertaining but not so much believable. He is able to do things in full sight of other people that he would never be able to get away with in the real world!
Despite starring a serial killer, the actual horror is kept to a bare minimum. Trap has a fifteen rating but there isn't any blood or many scenes of violence. Cooper is a man who is able to effortlessly balance the two worlds he exists in, the arc of the film has him battling to keep his evil side buried deep down. Hartnett was fantastic as Cooper and really creates a feeling of restrained rage that is shown in the way he speaks to characters. At one point he says to a character how he has never felt this angry ever before in his life, yet he says those lines in such a controlled and measured way that made that particular scene wonderful. I felt slightly bad, but I really wanted Cooper to come out on top, I found myself rooting for him! I also thought Donoghue was great as the oblivious yet likeable daughter, her excitement at being at the show was infectious. Side characters were varied, Langdon's character was the most comedic of the lot, I thought the Dr. Loomis style criminal profiler - Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills) was a bit underused, I wish she had more chances to interact with Cooper.
My one piece of advice for anyone going into seeing Trap is to not expect a huge twist ending. Sure there are plenty of twists and turns along the way, but they are there to serve the plot rather than be engineered for pure shock value. Not a perfect film by any means, but I did enjoy the film as a piece of escapism. Just don't look too deeply or cracks in the plot will start to show.
SCORE:
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