Trap

While Shyamalan has an eye for a Hitchcockian “aha” moment and a great sense of suspense, he stretches willing suspension of disbelief just a little too far, making Trap more of an acting showcase than a thriller masterclass.

It's not as good as his best work; it's not as bad as his worst work, but it does encapsulate the thing that makes [Shyamalan] so infuriating.

For some, puzzling out the “big twist” will be enough to sustain interest in the enjoyable, if nonsensical, third act. The real twist, for me, was realizing that The Sixth Sense came out 25 years ago.

Trap is a reminder that Shyamalan is one of the few A-List directors who still seems dedicated to original storytelling, and even when the scripts don’t quite fully deliver on their elaborate premises...

Hartnett does his best, but director Shyamalan seems more interested in trying to convince us of his daughter's pop-star credentials.

The whole film is a stunt, and a goof – sometimes simply too silly to get suspense ticking at all, but often cheekily outrageous.

Trap is an entertaining thriller, with Josh Hartnett truly carrying this one the entire way through. 

On a script and screenplay level, some it worked, some didn’t.

But one thing about Shyamalan to his credit, he throws the kitchen sink every time.

Trap is ingenious as a genre film, but it doesn’t go much farther than that. It comes off as more of an exercise than one of the director’s metaphysical outings.

The entire plot is silly and unbelievable, and each twist is increasingly absurd. This movie is more of an exercise in twists than storytelling. Surprisingly, however, I found Shyamalan's twist obsession to be quite entertaining this time around.

At its worst, a fun premise devolved into an incoherent puzzler. At best, a strangely moving exploration of parenthood and work/life balance.