Released: 2nd August 2024 (UK and US)
Length: 105 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Night Shyamalan, Alison Pill and Hayley Mills
With many hits and misses through the years, M. Night Shyamalan’s brand of filmmaking is often a dice roll. You could find a genuinely novel idea that translates into something memorable or a title that fizzles out. Trap falls into the latter camp, coming up short of other efforts in the thriller genre.
In modern Philadelphia, Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) and his daughter Reilly (Ariel Donoghue) are off to a Lady Raven (M Night’s daughter Saleka) concert, but the event is surrounded by the police who are intent on catching an infamous serial killer. Taking place from the perspective of the killer himself, Trap is split into two halves which feel very inconsistent. The first takes place entirely at the concert hall with Cooper evading the eyes of the law and finding an escape route without being discovered. This should have been an unpredictable and winding affair, but instead the tension never really rises. You don’t get the sense that the net is closing around the protagonist as he quickly finds easy and often contrived ways to slip through the barriers. The second half of the film is in the wider city area as the killer uses and manipulates others to avoid being brought to justice. We’re abruptly introduced to Cooper’s family alongside several outlandish moments where he slips past prying eyes, including a gathering crowd at one point. On the whole, Trap is very lacking in substance and doesn’t have the serious edge it needed to pull the audience in.
Josh Hartnett delivers an insular and sociopathic performance that does hit home throughout the production. You can sense all the little gears turning in Cooper’s head as he commits these crimes and tries to avoid losing his composure. Saleka Night. Shymalan is also solid; for starters she performs all of the songs and dances herself on stage. This then shifts into a great deal of anxiety as Lady Raven becomes an unwitting participant in the escape. With that said, the audience will be left wanting when it comes to depth. For the first half of the production, we learn so little about Cooper and the finer details of his character are shunted to the second. Trap needed to weave more details into the concert, really delve into the character’s mind-set while dropping hints to his past. We do get a heart-to-heart between Cooper and his wife at the end, but the film didn’t properly build their relationship in the early going. Other characters are mostly there for some light humour and don’t contribute much. There’s a merchandise worker named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) who gets manipulated by Cooper and a bitter mother (Marnie McPhail) whose interactions don’t really mean anything to the wider story. There are some good performances here, but they are quickly overrun by other problems.
The unique premise of Trap has resulted in some good filmmaking. In spite of its disconnected nature, the concert sequence is an ambitious and well-staged sequence with hundreds of extras all working in tandem to sell the live concert. Trap is also a huge fan of POV shots with characters talking directly to each other, awkwardly hiding their real motives and feelings from each other. We also see Cooper gazing around the environments, taking note of major obstacles. This does hint at the character’s devious approach, even if it doesn’t add much to the plot. The occasional unique angle doesn’t do much to deepen the narrative and the soundtrack by Herdís Stefánsdóttir has some sinister moments in the second half, but ultimately falls short.
With a disjointed structure and weak tension, Trap’s problems quickly overcome the good lead performances and effective staging. It’s a shame as the premise and perspective had a lot of potential; but without the proper build-up and character work the film is unable to engage.
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Mediocre)
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