Review: Trap

Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer

Even when I don’t like the movie, I always appreciate Shyamalan’s commitment to old-school, tightly wound set-ups and filmmaking.

And I really liked TRAP.

It’s one of his more openly Hitchcockian set-ups, and unlike many of his movies, there’s no recontextualizing twist waiting for us in act three. He lays out all his cards (Hartnett is unambiguously the killer), establishes a few rules (the only possible escape from the venue is backstage) and props (cell phones figure heavily into the action), and sets the story in motion.

Hartnett delivers a surprisingly good performance in this one. If you’ll indulge a random comparison: I recently rewatched TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, and like Hartnett in this, THE RETURN features an unexpectedly strong performance from one of the many young leading men who emerged from aughts cinema, Matt Lillard.

Hartnet’s performance compares favorably in terms of intensity and a range I didn’t expect from him. Part of the job is playing an affable dad, a ready part of his arsenal, but the “killer” side of this lead tasks Hartnet with capturing the fractured mind and bizarre associations of someone deeply unwell. (A moment when Hartnet’s killer rattles off a sentence fragment about carbon monoxide made my blood run cold.)

I can’t say every twist or escalation feels 100% believable, but they always feel fair. Moreover, all I ask from a writer is that they fully commit to their bonkers choices. Late in the story, we learn that Hartnet’s wife (Allison Pill, always excellent) turned him in. Shyamalan gives her a chilling speech about how she first glommed onto his double life.