Review of ‘The Trap’: A paternal nonsense

No one expects an M. Night Shyamalan film to be logical, but even with that in mind, it’s surprising how nonsensical his new thriller is. ‘The Trap’ not only calls into question its own credibility but pushes it, knocks it down with punches and tramples it, in each of its scenes. Starring a seemingly loving and devoted father who attends a concert by a pop diva named Lady Raven with his daughter, and who soon reveals himself to be the serial killer whom the massive police operation deployed at the venue hopes to hunt down, It is the director’s most ‘Hitchcockian’ fictionboth because it tries to put suspense before surprise – nobody should expect from it the kind of big final twists that Shyamalan likes so much – and because it tries to make us empathize with the criminal.

As we see him plotting an escape strategy and struggling to keep his psychopathic tendencies from destroying his affable façade, the film keeps lurching arbitrarily between intrigue, comedy and drama, and that’s not the only thing that keeps it from generating tension; The plot also advances based on the lucky breaks of its protagonist. -among them, the general stupidity of the policemen who stalk him- and a torrent of improbabilities. And instead of exploiting the claustrophobic potential of its premise -an obvious metaphor for the anxieties caused by parenthood-, Shyamalan prefers to turn ‘The Trap’ into a bizarre statement about the humanitarian power of celebrity and, more specifically, into a showcase for his own daughter Saleka.a capable singer and a terrible actress in charge of playing Lady Raven. He, we won’t argue about that, is a great father.