Review: Lady in the Water (2006)
d...@dca.net
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
In "Lady in the Water," Paul Giamatti plays a super with a stutter.
Not a super as in superhero but a super as in superintendent, the
everyman handyman of a suburban Philadelphia apartment complex whose
days are spent unblocking clogged toilets, changing light bulbs, and/or
ridding tenants of their unwanted, eight-legged guests (as in the
opening scene, in which Giamatti's Cleveland Heep--a good name, that--
thumps away at an unseen pest until it's, he assures the present (and
petrified) Hispanic sisterhood, quite dead).
Oddly, Cleveland's stutter momentarily disappears whenever he's in
the presence of Story ("Manderlay"'s Bryce Dallas Howard), a young
woman he pulls from "The Cove"'s pool one evening and who, true to her
name, spins a tall tale about another blue world, a prophetic, imminent
meeting, and a vicious, wolf-like creature called a "scrunt" poised to
do her harm. Cleveland, naturally enough, doesn't believe any of this
until he mentions it to one of his neighbors, Young-Soon Choi (a spunky
Cindy Cheung), whose mother seems well versed in Story's magical
bedtime tale. It's one that appears to require the involvement of a
Guardian, a Healer, a Gild, and other key figures in order for events
to conclude in that happily-ever-after fashion.
M. Night Shyamalan, the man who unleashed "The Sixth
Sense," "Signs," and "The Village," likewise spins this offbeat
fairytale with cool, calculated assurance. "Lady in the Water" is
somewhat of a departure for him: it's more fantastical that his
previous pictures--somewhat "lighter," certainly--but that's not to say
the film doesn't have its share of scares, especially when the scrunt
(which is able to disguise itself in the grass) attacks. Shyamalan's
trump card is, of course, his cast, especially the wonderful Giamatti
("Sideways," "Cinderella Man"), who lends the watery tale much weight
(if not exactly credibility; suffice it to say "Lady in the Water"
would have been a *completely* different picture had the producers gone
with their alternate choice, Kevin Costner!).
Cleveland, a former doctor it turns out, relates to the sheltered
Story because he's as much an outsider as she is, hiding out as the
development's menial employee following (and to avoid confronting) a
difficult incident in his recent past. As Story, Howard is
appropriately angelic and waif-life, cowering in a shower stall like a
brutalized Carrie White, and Bob Balaban has a nice, self-referential
turn as film critic Howard Farber (and we all know what happens to
*them*!).
Last but not least Shyamalan, as is his usual tendency, has also
written himself a meaty role, that of burgeoning writer Vick Ran whose
presence in the proceedings will feature prominently (the
actor/writer/director appears surprisingly comfortable on-screen;
Vick's relationship with his sister Anna, played by Sarita Choudhury,
is a lot of fun, echoing the relationship between Young-Soon Choi and
her cranky mother).
Truth be told I've never been a huge fan of the Gladwyne-based
filmmaker, finding most of his films to be unnecessarily expository,
succumbing too easily to conventions, or simply overwritten. But the
engaging elements that make up "Lady in the Water" have a real
resonance--and genuine warmth--to them. Here, at last, is an M. Night
Shyamalan film that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.
--
David N. Butterworth
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samseescinema
reviewed by Sam Osborn
rating: 2.0 out of 4
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (some frightening sequences)
So I'm late to the party where critics nationwide maim the likes of
M. Night Shyamalan. My tardiness, I suppose, is due to the fact that I
was the one lonely critic who liked The Village. It was clever, I
thought, and successfully brooding in style and tone. I bought into it,
which is not something I can say about Shyamalan's latest picture
Lady in the Water. The film, his seventh, lacks any of the unseen
menace from Signs and begets almost none of the shivers from The Sixth
Sense. There was awe to Unbreakable and that quiet brooding from The
Village. Lady in the Water has wolves covered in grass, big monkeys and
a half-naked girl. Sounds like a Michael Bay film, not something from
M. Night Shyamalan.
The story is easily the most far-fetched of Shyamalan's bunch. It
involves a world of water and a world of land. Humans occupy the land
world and have drifted farther and farther away from the world of
water. But the nutty little mermaid nymphs of the water world want a
reunion to bring peace back to the world of land. So out from the drain
of an apartment complex's pool comes Story (Bryce Dallas Howard),
scaring the daylights out of the landlord, Cleveland Heep (Paul
Giamatti). Taking her under his wing and listening to her bizarre,
simple sentenced tale, he learns that she is in fact from the world of
water. Asking around the tenants, Cleveland finds a Chinese bedtime
story that matches the Story's tale. Without giving too much away
about the big monkeys and wolves covered in grass, Cleveland learns
that if the right sequence of events occurs, Story could make a
significant change in the human world, er....the land world in
Shyamalan-speak; just as long as she doesn't get eaten by the land
and water world's eternal enemy.
For as complicated as it seems, Lady in the Water is no more complex
than what it touts itself as: a bedtime story. And this is its largest
problem. The issue isn't in the absurdity of Shyamalan's tale
because, seriously, how many of his plots aren't absurd? No, the
issue with Lady in the Water is that it never comes to a boil. The tale
is simplistic and undercooked. There's very little mystery to be
puzzled, and no twist to speak of at the end (a fact much publicized
already). The great potential for menace is smeared clear over with
the large helping of anti-climactic encounters with the wolf creatures
and the naked mermaid-thing, Story, is so boring that she makes the
drones from The Village look as nutty as circus freaks. It's a clever
idea--bringing a bedtime story to the unimpressive realities of
middle-class apartment life-but only if the bedtime story can invoke
some real excitement. Shyamalan holds the thrills at bay to make room
for slower, more profound material. Problem is, profundity never
figures in to Lady in the Water. Shyamalan hints at a deeper meaning,
showing images of war and disenchantment with the current state of
international politics. He even lays a significant element of the
bedtime story in the hands of world-weariness, but in the end refuses
to let his theme materialize. All we're left with is that silly
bedtime story, sans thrill factor.
The only card truly played is that of Paul Giamatti's. Time and again
he's proven his acting bones without Academy recognition (and he
won't be getting any here), but Mr. Giamatti is an incredible, really
incredible actor. Shyamalan is no stranger to strong characters,
especially the downtrodden middle-aged man, and his work with
Giamatti's character, Cleveland Heep, is a shining star among ashes
for Lady in the Water. Giamatti's co-star, Bryce Dallas Howard,
hardly deserves mention since her role could be played by a nine year
old. Droning lines with wide eyes was never difficult, so needless to
say, the talented Ms. Howard does fine. Supporting work by Jeffrey
Wright, Sarita Choudhury, and Shyamalan himself are all quite good,
too.
And so it isn't the acting that's Lady in the Water's problem;
nor is it the camera work or pacing or direction. For M. Night
Shyamalan has already proven that he's a swell director with the
talent to sometimes be great. But Shyamalan is an easy target for us
critics and it seems he's fed up with it. Lady in the Water is a film
that shows him floundering with his career and wanting to be or make
something different. He even creates a film critic character, Mr. Leeds
(Bill Irwin), just so he can kill him off in the most theatric manner
his film will allow. It's a show of frustration and zany vendetta.
But the man's typical formula of the scare-and-twist movie is changed
as well, looking for something the same but, as usual, fundamentally
different. He even acts a major role in the film, a role that has
prophetic importance. Shyamalan seems to be reaching for something
beyond scary movies, something he's hinted at before but hadn't
lunged for. Well, he's lunged for the profound and found only a
couple scraps of shredded paper. With his next project, he'll have to
choose a direction. We'll just have to wait and see. But if it's
the mass of critics hating his films that's bothering him, somebody
should remind him that Alfred Hitchcock, surely one of his role models,
didn't find critical welcome until about 1968, forty years after his
career started.