Trap – A Rough Around the Edges Character Thriller

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has consistently proved over the course of his career that he is one of the best at crafting tension and suspense. While his filmography may have hit a rough patch in the early 2000s, he has seen a resurgence since then, with Split putting him firmly back on the map. Shyamalan’s latest, Trap, looks to bring something new to the table, making a concert movie into a thriller. Undoubtedly a challenge, at least on paper, the film works for the most part. Playing its hand across its trailers and promotional material, its titular premise is there to see which is unfortunate as the choice essentially undercuts the film by taking away the element of surprise. However, where it fails is how it tries to build around that premise, using a foundation of silly contrivances, some bad dialog, while also struggling to stick the landing with a ridiculous final act. In spite of its issues, Shyamalan does an admirable job at crafting the kind of tension and atmosphere that will still keep many audiences on the edge of their seats. In the end, its ultimate fate rests on the shoulders of its star, Josh Hartnett. The element of surprise may be gone but he, and his arc, holds it together with a stellar performance.

For those who missed any of the trailers or promotional material, Trap follows Cooper (Hartnett), a dad taking his daughter Riley (Donoghue) to a concert by pop superstar Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) as a reward for good grades. Expecting it to be a fun afternoon with his daughter, as he arrived to the arena, his spirits began to change once he noticed that something wasn’t quite right about this concert. The increased police (and FBI) presence and increased security measures left Cooper a little on edge. Trying to do right by Riley, he tried to hide it from her but the longer the concert went on, he became even more erratic to the point that his actions were not lost on his daughter. However, setting him over the edge was when he officially learned that the concert was designed to be a trap designed by FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills) to capture an infamous serial killer known as The Butcher. Fearing capture, Grant seemingly had contingency plans for everything, making it nearly impossible to escape. That added dimension created a window for some palpable tension as Cooper’s main focus was escape, rather than the concert with his daughter. With most of the film taking place in that arena, it became another character in the story as the camera work made it feel claustrophobic as Cooper saw the walls closing in on him.

Somewhat of a cat and mouse game between Cooper and Grant, the lengths at which the former plotted to evade capture got increasingly silly and contrived, either making him clever or just very lucky. That being said, there would eventually be a point where the story would leave the concert and the arena but that moment was merely the starting point for what would be a ridiculous final act. Trying to reconcile everything that had happened as a means to finish the story, the film mostly stumbles. Leaning so much on the concert/trap subplot, throwing audiences straight into it without providing any character development beforehand would allow the final act to have more of an impact. The marketing already gave the twist about Cooper anyway but building him up more in the context of the film itself would have helped. Meanwhile, using Lady Raven as a means to drive that final act also proved to be the wrong choice as she added nothing to the film beyond singing in its concert scenes (she’s a great singer). In her feature debut, Saleka Shyamalan was flat as she went toe-to-toe with Hartnett.

Once everything was out in the open, it was clear that Cooper could no longer live a double life as his family blew up as each of his lives began to bleed into each other. He was bound to make a mistake and that mistake caused a chain of events that led to his whole day. Though, with a few more tricks up its sleeve, maybe the concert wasn’t the real trap after all. Still forced to evade capture from Grant and the FBI, it was only a matter of time until they caught up to Cooper. But a cliffhanger foreshadowed that it may not be the end to that story.

The best part of Trap is the aforementioned performance from Hartnett as Cooper. The devolution of the character over the course of the film is a testament to his range and charm, bad dialog aside. He was compelling to watch as his desperation, as he perceived the walls to be closing in on him, led to some tense moments (and some contrived ones). It would have been nice to have known more about Cooper, despite being a serial killer, his performance helped to fill a lot of those gaps. This was his film, for better or worse, but the supporting performances all delivered for the most part. While Donoghue was fine as Riley and Mills was underused as Grant, the true scene stealer was Jonathan Langdon as Jamie, an arena merchandise vendor who many probably noticed in the film’s trailers.

Overall, Trap delivers a decent character thriller that may be a little rough around the edges, but it is held together by a stellar performance from Josh Hartnett.

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.