Instead of employing the usual surprise ending that Shyamalan has delivered in many of his other films, Lady In The Water plays it straight. It is, quite literally, a mature fairy tale. This comes as no surprise, though, since the entire concept was based on a bedtime story Shyamalan told his children. However, cinema requires more than just some writer’s imaginative idea, even if that writer is as creative as Shyamalan.
For what it’s worth, Lady In The Water focuses on a man named Cleveland Heep played by Paul Giamatti. Cleveland is the superintendent of an apartment complex. There is a strange cast of characters among the tenants and soon the building has a brand new tenant when Cleveland finds a, get this, lady in the water, er, apartment swimming pool.
The mysterious woman, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, tells Cleveland that her name is Story. Cleveland investigates her existence through some of the tenants and learns that she is a narf, a type of sea nymph from the blue world. He also discovers that Story has appeared to help a writer change the world.
Cleveland finds this person and, as legend has it, Story is now allowed to go free via an eagle. However, when a monster-like creature called a Scrunt attacks the defenseless Story, Cleveland must rally the tenants to try and help her. It will take the various roles of key players to ensure their mystical mission is a success.
One of the primary faults that Lady In The Water makes is its attention to cinema. Sometimes, as in independent films, such a trait furthers the artistic relevance of the movie. Yet, in the case of Lady In The Water, the movie’s self-awareness becomes trite. Shyamalan even casts himself as a very important character in the film, adding to the flick’s ultimate lack of credibility.
The story, while mildly entertaining for a moment, gets far too tedious to remain enjoyable. Shyamalan should have kept this bedtime story in his children’s bedroom and saved audience the hassle of getting wrapped up in it. Without any surprises, Lady In The Water surfaces as one of the year’s worst movies.
I was never a fan of Shyamalan’s biggest feature, The Sixth Sense, but Lady In The Water takes its place as the worst Shyamalan movie in my book. Even Giamatti couldn’t save the movie from drowning and, much like the captain of a ship, Shyamalan’s reputation went down with it. Fortunately, audiences don’t have to, though. They always have the option of taking a lifeboat over to the service desk and getting a refund or, better yet, not seeing it at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment