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Lady in the Water
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Paul Giamatti
Genre:
Fantasy
Run Time: 110
min.
Release Date:
July 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
What makes a movie
watchable? Mostly it’s good acting, a good screenplay, and a story that
has emotional weight. So it is most strange to see the many harsh
reviews of this film which I’m sure kept ticket-buyers away from the
theater when professionals started pummeling LADY IN THE WATER.
Entertainment Weekly said, “[It is] Shyamalan’s most alienating and
self-absorbed project to date” (as if that has anything to do with the
story being told). The Philadelphia Enquirer called it, “...extremely
silly.” And the New York Observer said, “Hollywood cannot pollute the
ozone with anything more idiotic, contrived, amateurish or sub-mental
than Lady in the Water.”
Ouch.
No wonder so few went to see it after reading things like that. I know I
shied away specifically because of them. But I’d also seen a few
positive reviews. Nothing big, really. I attributed most of these to
Shyamalan die-hards who’d love anything put out by him regardless of
subject matter. That wasn’t the only thing that kept me away from the
theater, though. Having fell in love with The Sixth Sense (like 99% of
the rest of you), I sludged through Unbreakable, Signs, and then
The
Village. None of them were stellar and they lacked that umpf! we’d come
to expect from M. Night. So having invested money and time in many of
his previous works, I was extremely hesitant to spend more of either on
something that many “respected” reviewers found, to say the least,
tepid.
So when I plopped in the DVD this week and started watching Lady in the
Water, I was prepared for the worst. Surprisingly, that’s not what I
found.
If films are supposed to be about entertainment, then Lady in the Water
most certainly meets that challenge. Not only that, but I found Paul Giamati’s performance to be outstanding. Not since
Sideways had I
enjoyed a Giamati film so much. He, in fact, carried most of the movie
with his excellent portrayal of Cleveland Heep, an apartment manager who
one night finds a narf (a water creature) swimming in the compound’s
pool. The narf is named Story and is played by Bryce Dallas Howard (the
blind girl from M. Night’s The Village). The movie delves deep into
Fairytale-Land and plants the audience firmly in its belief structure.
The fact that Story has shown herself to Cleveland is very important in
the film, and it shows us that this is something special. Cleveland is
given the opportunity to heal himself through Story’s visit, and in the
process bring together everyone in the apartment complex. All of the
people within the apartment building have been drawn here for this one
event: to see a narf safely on her way to becoming a segue between the
blue world (i.e., the narfs) and the human one.
The quirky, quaint, and scarey intermingle here as we see a movie critic monologuing during a funny yet frightening scene, watch
Cleveland come to terms with the death of his family from years before,
and witness the battle between humps of grass that come to life with
razor sharp teeth and threaten to destroy Story.
The heart-wrenching scene between Cleveland, the apartment building’s
occupants, and the mortally wounded Story has such impact as to cause
most watchers to reach for the tissue box.
The ending is extremely satisfying and filmed perfectly. When Story has
to leave, she does so in fairytale fashion.
This is a great story. My only regret now is that I didn’t see it in the
theater. I’m sure the sound and scenery were even better on the big
screen.
I also have to wonder about Warner Brothers and the “falling out” that
they had with M. Night over the film during production. Budget,
screenplay and time constraints weighed heavy on all of the parties
involved and I think this may have had an impact on reviewers and how
the film was marketed. Are some reviewers leery of praising a film from
a large studio when that studio has problems with a director/writer?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. But the negative reviews of the film seem far out
of proportion with what I watched.
Lady in the Water was well acted, had a decent screenplay, and told a
great story. I’m glad I saw it.
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Image from Lady in the
Water
DVD cost: $24.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
M. Night's wish list for his
various male supporting roles included names such as William Hurt,
Sidney Poitier, Chris Cooper, Gene Wilder, Terrence Howard, Alec
Baldwin, Vince Vaughn, Forest Whitaker, and Don Cheadle among others.
Movie Quote: "Hey!
I saw you! I saw you!"
Other Actors/Actresses
from Lady in the Water
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