M. Night Shyamalan forged his reputation through films with plenty of build, clue-drops and twist endings. Unfortunately, it’s the recipe that got him labeled a one-trick-pony, forever trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was The Sixth Sense, his debut feature. With rarer and rarer exceptions, the director has had various levels of success (re-teaming with Bruce Willis on Unbroken, for instance), but for the most part, movies like The Village and The Happening have made up the lion’s share of Shyamalan’s cinematic output: clear misses.
With Knock at the Cabin, Shyamalan gets dynamite performances from his ensemble cast, but as is the bane of his career, it’s more miss than hit, with the movie averaging a 3 out of 5 on review sites, and in the low-to-mid 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. Dave Bautista continues to evolve as an actor, and he isn’t the problem here. Nor are Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter films) or Wen, played by young newcomer Kristen Cui. The real problem is Shyamalan’s slavish devotion to building without much, if any, payoff. Knock at the Cabin is lackluster, unsatisfying, and the longer he spends building, the less three-dimensional his survivors seem. The potential is there, and there’s plenty of material in Paul Tremblay’s novel, but M. Night is more interested in explaining what audiences should have been allowed to figure out for themselves, dragging them by the hand instead of allowing them to connect the dots. If you’ve seen The Village, one of Shyamalan’s biggest crashes-and-burns with the ‘big twist’ ending, you’ll be further disappointed as he doesn’t even bother this time out, instead wrapping things up as if his crew had run low on video chips, tieing things up as neatly as possible, but without ever answering the two big questions his protagonists pose. At the end of the day, uninspired storytelling is what sinks Knock At the Cabin, although the gorgeous cinematography being compromised by terrible production value in the TV clips and ‘live’ news footage that’s so integral to the story, one has to wonder: if it isn’t tops on M. Night’s list, does it necessarily get short-shrift from the entire team?
2 out of 5 stars. Currently playing at the Argo Theatre, showtimes on the theatre web site.
