Warner Brothers

PG-13.                   105 min

Spoiler alert: Gang, I'm not sure what's going on here. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age but it just occurred to me that in the last year I have praised Julia Roberts, Keanu Reeves and now M Night Shyamalan. (Well I I guess as long as I don't start drinking Bud Light or rooting for the Steelers I'm still okay.) That was we all know I loved the Bruce Willis flick about seeing dead people THE SIXTH SENSE. Unfortunately then he established a pattern and you couldn't watch anything that he did without something in the back of your mind saying this is all misdirection. There's a card up the sleeve there's smoke, there's mirrors so don't believe anything.  The old switcheroo ending was a little bit predictable since you're looking for it for 2 hours. And I usually saw it coming or when I found out shrugged my shoulders.

Frankly TRAP was a last minute selection and I went in absolutely cold not even knowing who the director was. When I found out then the modus operandi kicked in and I started searching for clues right off the bat. As it turns out the misdirection was the misdirection! I kept looking for something that never really happened. This is a good old-fashioned cat and mouse game with a serial killer, the authorities and twists and turns as he evades capture.

Josh Hartnett is Cooper, seemingly the All-American dad from any 50s sitcom celebrating his daughter Riley's (Ariel Donahue) good report card with a trip to a Lady Raven concert.  By the way the exotic and talented (word has it she wrote and sang the entire soundtrack) Raven plays a pretty big part in this whole mystery and she is Saleka Shyamalan the daughter of the director. While I'm on the subject let me say this film doesn't work without Hartnett. The guy exhibits at almost perfect blend of evil and charming.

Somehow the authorities have gotten a tip that the butcher, that serial killer we were talking about, is going to be at this concert and the entire show has been arranged as a trap for him. Another interesting side note there is a criminal profiler involved in this case who has narrowed down the identity of the butcher to just about exactly, well, Cooper. She's played by Hayley Mills. Remember her? An interesting concept is that the film is in almost  real time encompassing  little more than the concert itself and maybe an hour or so afterward. And it never really slows down the Butcher is clever and evades capture probably a dozen times. I won't give away the ending but, even though I'd been sidetracked by a couple meaningless misdirections, didn't necessarily see it coming. So kudos to M Night. I took off one half of a litter grade just because I've been to concerts and can't imagine getting up to leave as many times as Cooper at Riley did for snacks. I realize that was so he could set up his escape but come on. Still the film executed the twists and turns skillfully and even gave the audience pause to consider that maybe the serial killer had a human side.

A-

WSS