Director M. Night Shyamalan returns to multiplexes with his newest thriller. Trap introduces us to Cooper (Josh Hartnett), a dad from suburban Philadelphia taking his teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) in concert. While there, he notices a heavy police presence in the arena and learns that the FBI and profiler Dr. Grant (Hayley Mills) have learned that the local serial killer The Butcher is attending the show which they will be using to trap and catch him. The issue with this is that…Cooper is The Butcher. He must now try to find a way out of the venue without running into the police or revealing his predicament to his daughter.
As its premise establishes, Trap is mostly a game of cat-and-mouse between Cooper and those who wish to catch him, first the authorities and then Lady Raven. The on-the-fly tactics and plans he must deploy in order to find an escape route while still playing the doting dad escorting his teenage daughter to screech at her idol results in some of the most thrilling and tense onscreen moments that theaters have seen in quite sometime. The audience is kept on edge as Cooper methodically but urgently searches for ways out of his predicament while trying to balance his fatherly duties as Dr. Grant and the authorities draw ever closer. It makes for some tense moments which Shyamalan smartly intersperses with levity as well at certain points. I found myself grinning and chuckling like a true fan and not just a discerning film critic throughout the first two acts of the film, a testament to how the film is written, shot, and acted. Though contained to an arena involving a stage area, floor seats, stairs and multiple corridors, Trap never feels as if it’s too confined to one set of areas and matches the sprawl of a modern venue. This can be attributed to its quality camera work, which also heavily utilize extreme closeup shots of the actors, both to highlight their emotions, Cooper’s in particular as the walls slowly close around him, and as a sort of homage to another serial killer thriller The Silence of the Lambs. There’s even a Carrie-esque split diopter shot focusing on Cooper in the foreground and Dr. Grant in the back, juxtaposing the hunted with the hunter as she enters his orbit unbeknownst to her.
Hartnett is magnetic, menacing, and mesmerizing as Cooper, perfectly capturing the duality of a suburban serial killer with his performance. He is at once charming and affable as a slightly goofy dad who clearly loves his daughter and wants the best for her, but able to deftly switch into coldblooded killer mode complete with sociopathy and cunning once he’s away from his little girl’s eyes and snaking around the arena trying to hatch a plan to escape. The nuance which Hartnett nails includes not just his performance of the dialogue and actions written, but also the subtle changes in his facial expressions in the aforementioned extreme closeups, the shifts in his brow, how his smile appears like a veil when needed the disappears once the person observing him leaves. All contribute to one of Hartnett’s best performances of his career, one that feels like a spiritual descendant of Robert Mitchum’s legendary performance as Reverend Harry Powell in the 1955 classic The Night of the Hunter.
Trap is more straightforward than previous M. Night Shyamalan entries, though not for lack of trying. Where this film begins to suffer is its third act where it transitions from a pursuit thriller into more psychological territory where the nature of monsters and marriage begin to be explored. It is in this part of the film where we learn how The Butcher was tracked to the concert and the role Cooper’s wife Rachel (Alison Pill) played in it. Their relationship is where Cooper’s duality as both monster and devoted family man are examined, how secrets can exist in a marriage, and what it’s like to discover the part of themselves a partner may have hidden from you. It’s an admirable attempt to add some depth to both the characters and story, but it is in these moments that some of the film’s momentum is blunted and pacing issues arise. Likewise, the third act sees multiple moments where Cooper slips out of the authorities’ hands due to his cunning that requires some suspension of disbelief that may take some viewers out of the film despite Cooper’s cleverness having arguably already been established. Trap also marks the acting debut of Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka, who also wrote and performed the fictional Lady Raven’s songs. While her songwriting skills are quality and on full display, her acting performance is spotty at times, but not bad enough to hurt the film too terribly. Still, it could be a sticking point some as well.
All in all, Trap is a film whose strong first two acts, superb performance from Josh Hartnett, original concept, and thrilling story elements far outweigh its missteps and flaws. This is an engrossing film that evokes thrillers of yesteryear and does more than enough to create audience investment and intrigue. It’s a worthwhile watch that also feels like it may age well. Another quality addition to M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography.
Image: Warner Bros.
