Trap

There's a charming video essay that talks about the much loved TV detective Columbo, and how the show creates "intrigue without mystery". The whole notion of an inverted detective story, the substitution of 'whodunnit' for 'howcatchem'. Though the genre itself dates back to at least 1912 that term of art is from a 1963 collection by author Philip MacDonald. In a relatively complicated film career he had works adapted and adapted works himself, including contributions to another work with a director fond of appearing in cameo, 1940's Rebecca. Here it's not Alfred Hitchcock but another name synonymous with high concept thrillers, M Night Shyamalan.

Trap aims and usually succeeds in building a constant unease that's as complicated in structure as the fictional Tanaka Stadium in which most of it takes place. Hamilton, Ontario joins Glasgow, Scotland in a list of cities that have impersonated Philadelphia on film. While World War Z had a different view of inevitability Trap is no less fixed in its journey towards revelation. It's just doing so on a series of smaller stages, even the ones covered in massive concert screens and dancers.

Josh Hartnett is Cooper, that's a name from an occupation. Barrel-making, or one of the processes involved. There are other surnames with similar etymologies. Sutler, from one who follows an army to sell goods, like merchandise vendor Jamie (Jonathan Langdon). Singer, just that, like Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, child of M Night). Another daughter, Cooper's Riley, breaks this thread a little, it's a patronymic for descendants of Raghallach. She's at the concert because of good grades. Hunter, another obvious one, like FBI consultant Josephine Grant (the veteran Hayley Mills), here for something else. Butcher, that's another apposite one. That's probably from the old French for 'goat slaughterer'.

There's a whole slew of names that address these subtle distinctions. Kellogg might be more famous from cereals, but it comes from "kill hog". There's a number that could claim to be from those who silence lambs but then we're back to things that sound like other things. Serial, that's one of those, more modern than you'd think from about 1820, of a series.

Trap is variously so. Shyamalan has a tendency to thrillers, has worked with his offspring before, has had highs and lows of tension but here makes it sing by creating his intrigue without mystery. We know that Cooper is uneasy and those who've seen the trailer will have a bit of a head start in knowing why but that doesn't matter. Once Trap has established its parameters it starts to play within them, lining up its various mechanisms as it moves its pieces around the board.

Hartnett's performance is central but there's a balancing act within it that reflects other contrasts in the film. Among its various duels is a battle that's framed by notoriety and celebrity. One leverages a threat and one, strikingly, undercuts another. There are revelations to keep things going but their existence is predictable though their form is not.

There's a fire extinguisher in Alien: Romulus that reminded me of one in Avatar: The Way Of Water and it wasn't just James Cameron or punctuation that drew the parallel. It had reasons to be there that made sense in terms of location and production design but those were in turn explanations for them being there for story. There's a whole class of watches that expose their mechanism through the case and the precision of their movement is independent of direction. In a Heist people are trying to get in, and in Escapes (as from Pretoria) people are trying to get out, and sometimes they're two-facedly trying to do both. In either case there are obstacles and catches, hooks and the like.

In the filmic case the precision of their movement is not independent of direction, especially when (as is the case with those three) they also act as writer. By putting more of his cards on the table early, Shyamalan's managed to get back a lot of that early magic. Even details like the makeup of the crowd make sense, a cornucopia of cosplay and cardigans that looks and feels like right. The music sounds right too, in as much as it's not for my demographic. Kid Cudi and Russ join Saleka in appearing under pseudonyms, but they felt right. I think there might not have been enough costume changes for Lady Raven, but corvids follow battlefields too.

Having mentioned mice and birds among the menagerie of menace there are still cats I think would benefit from being left in the bag. Shyamalan's early work was so defined by 'twists' that subtler balances between revelation and reversal are often lost. Intrigue without mystery, though as Chief Wiggum of the Simpsons pointed out "you have to remember". Trap rewards just that, indeed it serves as a reminder of a talent who despite some failures hasn't forgotten how to direct thrillers, but tried things that didn't quite work. Trap does though, with performances, especially from Hartnett, that ratchet the tension until things break.