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The 20th Century Fox marketing team has made a grave error. They’ve been pushing The Happening as a M. Knight Shyamalan movie. They are trying to excite people with the film’s greatest liability: its director. His last two efforts were flops, and the whole twist-ending shtick is growing tired. No one expects much from Shyamalan or his latest film, so let’s instead focus on the figure on whose Atlas-like shoulders The Happening is supported: Mark Wahlberg.

His beginnings were humble. Baby brother to a New Kid on the Block; awkward white rapper with the lyrical prowess of Vanilla Ice and the body of LL Cool J; Calvin Klein underwear model. This is not the typical start of a great actor. But that is what Mark Wahlberg, against all odds, has become. This does not mean he’s a great actor in the mold of Phillip Seymour Hoffman or Paul Giamatti. That’s just not his strength – and besides, he’s too good-looking for that.

When you see an otherwise uninteresting movie trailer, Marky Mark is the guy who makes you think, “Mark Wahlberg’s in it – I’d go see it.” This is what I refer to as the Bruce Willis Effect. Like Bruce Willis before him, he may not possess the greatest depth of emotion or have the best acting chops, but he is someone you’re just happy to see.

Science professor Mark Wahlberg acts incredulous after a student admits he has no idea who Einstein is.

This is not a power to be trifled with. I still remember the day when I asked my grandfather why he taped Hart’s War, and was given the prophetic answer, “I wouldn’t have, but then I saw it has Bruce Willis in it, and I thought, what the hell.” The Bruce Willis Effect leaves its mark on the young and old alike. Mark Wahlberg has this ability, yet it is taking Hollywood and the public some time to fully realize and take advantage of it. For the time being, he has to content himself with being the workhorse in middling roles like the one he has in The Happening.

Wahlberg has surprised audiences with his acting chops since his earliest roles. Even before famously donning a false phallus in Boogie Nights, he played a homicidal boyfriend in Fear. In it, he wielded a maniacal smile that made audiences want to run away from him in horror, but not before catching one last lingering glimpse of his physique. More recently, his supporting role in The Departed was the film’s greatest strength. Even Rock Star was tolerable when you realize it is just a sports drama in disguise.

Two rabid Mark Wahlberg fans chase the actor in The Happening

The question is, why can’t Wahlberg earn the respect of someone like his Departed co-star Matt Damon? Damon was overshadowed by his supporting actor, but he continues to reap the benefits of juicier roles in meatier movies. Wahlberg might not be at Matt Damon’s level yet, but give him a chance and he will prove himself an equal. After all, they started on uneven ground. Wahlberg had to fight against his image of a volatile heartthrob teen idol. Meanwhile, Damon became a Hollywood darling just for writing an overwrought romance movie where he played the genius prodigy of Robin Williams and Stellan Skarsgård. The rapping pretty boy and film prodigy images unfairly color the way we see each actor to this day.

The Happening is probably not going to help pull Marky Mark out of the shadow of his Funky Bunch past. It is, however, another opportunity to bask in the glory that is Mark Wahlberg. Not even he will be able to save this mess of a film, which will end up playing out like Invasion of the Body Snatchers without a plot or even a tangible villain. He doesn’t have to. Just let the fearmongering storyline of M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film wash over you, contented that the Bruce Willis Effect has a worthy successor.