Spoilers follow for the M. Night Shyamalan film Trap , which opened in theaters on August 2. Josh Hartnett has a great smirk.
There’s something about that face — narrow eyes, a straight brow, the shock of hair nearly always falling across his forehead — that’s especially well suited to amplifying expressions of amusement and scorn. Hartnett’s serial killer Cooper in Trap isn’t in the business of revealing all of himself, not to his family, not to the cops chasing him, and not to the pop star who stands against him. But every time he smiles at all the effort everyone is going through to capture him, he shows a little more pleasure.
All this, for me? Cooper lives for this duplicity, and that smirk is his truest declaration. Hartnett’s working-class suburban dad looks like a blandly handsome everyman attending a concert with his 12-year-old daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), and then — bam! His mind is elsewhere as he figures out how to outsmart the cops. He gives everyone he encounters just enough attention to feel seen, but not so much attention that they become curious about him.
Hartnett’s ability to switch between personalities is what fuels Trap ’s relentless tension, and the fluidity of his performance means you never know exactly what to expect from either Cooper or his serial-killer persona, “the Butcher.” Hartnett and Trap writer-director M. Night Shyamalan both seem to recognize that despite the actor’s teen-heartthrob beginnings, part of the .
