Lady In The Water marks the 7th feature film by M.Night Shyamalan and the 4th since he smashed his way into the Hollywood A-List with The Sixth Sense, and possibily the greatest twist in recent memory. After the massive critical acclaim heaped on The Sixth Sense admiration for Shyamalan seems to have gradually petered out, especially after The Village came out 2 years ago, polarising audiences everywhere. Fans of the director hoping that The Village was just an anomoly, a small sidetrack on his path to greatness will be dissapointed to hear that Lady In The Water is going to be recieved just as ambivalently as The Village was. Indeed after watching Lady In The Water i have begun to wonder whether Shyamalan might just be a one-trick pony. For those of you looking for that well hidden twist, stop now. There isn't one. This film is completely unlike anything you could imagine from Shyamalan. Indeed parts of it are so far out there in left field that one has to wonder, what WAS he thinking?The basic outline of the movie follows Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), a superintendent working in an apartment building who one evening rescues a woman from the swimming pool. Only she is no mere woman, she is a NARF from the 'Blue World', come here to spread enlightenment and re-awaken mans lost innocence. It is up to Cleveland and his friends to protect her and ensure she fufills her quest and makes it back to her world. To do this they must find the guardian, the healer, the guild and the symbolist who will protect her from the Scrunt desperate to stop her. Bizarre? Well that barely scratches the surface.
Many people are going to hate this movie, not dislike, but utterly dispise. Whether you enjoy the film or not will depend largely on whether you buy into the premise in the first place. Afterall, this is a 'bedtime story' as the promo would have you believe. However last time I checked bedtime stories didn't have Paul Giamatti curled up in the foetal position with a milk moustache eating cookies. Yes, that is in the film. Scenes like the above are really going to strech most peoples ability to go with the film. I am not even going to into the intepreting cereal boxes scene. It is for this reason that a large proportion of the audience laughed through most of the reason. Shyamalan makes it SO hard for you to immerse yourself in such a bizarre world. It is much easier to just sit back and laugh at the outlandishness.
It's not all bad though, Christopher Doyle is in charge of the cinematography (of Hero fame) so you know we're in comfortable hands. The film looks excellent and the acting is good for the most part, managing to overcome the limitations of the script. Giamatti and co try so very hard to hide the inherent humour in some of the lines but at times it's just impossible not to laugh.
One particular aspect that I did enjoy was the continual dig at the movie critic character. I wouldn't be surprised if Shyamalan put him in because of the critical reception to The Village. As one would imagine, the critic doesn't come off to well by the end of the movie. Speaking of Shyamalan he continues his Hitchcockian habit of appearing in all his movies only this time its extended to a full on supporting role. 'Delusions of grandeur' come to mind when thinking of his character, you could easily extend that out to the movie as a whole unfortunately.
Shyamalan had 100% creative freedom on this one, with next to no interference from the studios. Its very rare for a director to get final cut these days, with good reason. While i do feel Hollywood bigwigs are a pain in the ass they at least stop some of the more downright bizarre ideas of directors getting past the editing process. Something Lady In The Water is desperately in need of.
2 1/2 Stars.
