Dog’s Movie House: “Trap” A Straightfoward Yet Tense Thriller From M. Night Shyamalan!”

“Trap” begins with Cooper (Hartnett) taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite artist, one Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) at a concert in downtown Philadelphia. They have good seats and are bonding just as a father and daughter should. The only odd thing is that there seems to be a massive police presence in place. Cooper finds out during an attempt to get Riley a T-shirt that the concert is serving as a trap for a notorious serial killer known as The Butcher. A tip has been leaked to feds that he’d be at this particular concert and it’s up to profiler Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills) to match wits with the killer to see that he doesn’t get away.

Now if you’ve seen the trailers, you know that Cooper is The Butcher, having successfully chopped up 12 victims while maintaining a seemingly normal family life. The rest of the film has Cooper desperately seeking a means of escape without alerting his daughter to his alter ego, all while the intrepid Grant and her team are closing in around him. The result is a deadly game of chess between two brilliant adversaries.

“Trap” is probably Shyamalan’s most “Hitchcockian” film ever, which is a double edged sword considering he’s been compared to the great Alfred since his debut in 1999, “Trap” is not interested in the big twist like other Shyamalan films, instead focusing on the details of the cat-and-mouse between Cooper and the cops. Each move and countermove is all played through the eyes of Cooper, who goes from being overconfident to concerned to finally panicky as each successful move to escape the dragnet results in yet another obstacle to his freedom. That’s the primary enjoyment to be found in watching “Trap” and although you know Cooper’s a bad dude, you still find yourself rooting for him to get away, just a little bit.

Shyamalan’s script makes the most of the concert environment and Lady Raven is certainly modeled after Taylor Swift. Raven has an almost cult-like hold over her impressionable audience and Shyamalan perfectly captures that raw, undulating energy that these concerts provide. Poor Riley doesn’t know what’s happening with her dad: she only knows she’s having the night of her life. The state of the art arena also makes for a wonderful maze in which Cooper constantly loses himself looking for a means to escape.

“Trap” is driven by Hartnett’s outstanding performance as the dual-natured Cooper, who has to be the most polite serial killer ever to grace the screen. Acting like a soccer dad for most of the film, the only hints of the evil within can be found in his cold, calculating eyes. As the film continues, those eyes bore into the people with which he interacts, his smiles and aw-shucks personality never quite reaching those intense black orbs. Shyamalan often shoots Hartnett’s face partially in shadow, given those dark eyes an even more sinister appearance. It’s a wonderful performance from the talented Hartnett, who manages to retain some of the boyish charm he exhibited early in his career while perfectly selling Cooper’s suburban dad facade.

The other actors do fine work as well, with Donoghue impressive as Riley. She’s smart and she knows something’s not right with her dad, yet she’s only 13 or 14 years old and is honestly distracted by the awesome event going on around her. She and Hartnett have a believable chemistry that makes events in the film all the more heartbreaking. Saleka Shyamalan is actually quite good as Lady Raven, who has a bigger part in the film than as simply a superstar musician. Shyamalan brings a real sense of warmth to the role, making her popularity totally believable. It also helps that she doesn’t come off as a total diva backstage, adding to her sympathetic and relatable nature. Former child star Mills is quite good as Grant although her role is not very big in terms of screentime. In the limited time she does have, Mills projects intelligence and authority, making her an ideal opponent for the slippery Cooper.

Shyamalan is all about what’s not seen in “Trap.” For example, you never see any of The Butcher’s grisly work. It’s merely implied through reports and the horrified reactions of those who see the photos of The Butcher’s victims. The whole movie generates its considerable tension over “what’s he gonna do” rather than what Cooper actually does. Even at his most threatening, Cooper presents an amiable front that’s all the more chilling for its phony politeness. There are only a couple of curse words in the whole picture and both are near the end when Cooper starts unraveling a bit. For all the modern trappings, “Trap” is an old-school film that would have made Hitchcock proud. 4 1/2 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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