Film Review: Lady in the Water (2006)

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(source: tmdb.org)

The 2006 fantasy drama, Lady in the Water, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, serves as a cautionary tale of when a filmmaker's attempt to make their work personal goes awry.

Based on bedtime stories the director used to tell his children, the film is, like most of Shyamalan’s films, set in Philadelphia and follows the story of Cleveland Heep (played by Paul Giamatti), a superintendent of an apartment complex haunted by the murder of his family. One evening, he discovers Story (played by Bryce Dallas Hoard), a young woman who turns out to be Narf, a naiad-like water nymph from the Blue World sent to inspire a world-changing writer. Cleveland must now protect Story from dog-like creatures called "scrunts" and recruits the tenants to help him return her to her world.

In previous years, Shyamalan enjoyed an enviable reputation among critics following the commercial success of The Sixth Sense, with many considering him the successor of Spielberg. However, as time went by, the quality or reception of his films began to decline slightly, and some started viewing him as a one-trick pony making formulaic horror films with unexpected plot twists. Perhaps in an attempt to silence his critics, Shyamalan decided to take a different approach with Lady in the Water. Instead of relying on plot twists, he experimented with fantasy tropes while partially explaining the complicated plot and film's internal mythology through narration by David Ogden Stiers.

While the unusual setting and unconventional set of strange, ethnically diverse characters are supposed to intrigue the audience, Shyamalan gathered a diverse and talented cast that is not used as effectively as it could be. Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays enigmatic Story, is reduced to a single facial expression, while great character actors like Jeffrey Wright, Sarita Choudhury, or Jared Harris are wasted on small, almost cameo-like roles of mostly forgettable characters.

Shyamalan himself did not hesitate when it came to casting the role of Vick Ran, the cookbook writer who would author the world-changing book according to the film's outrageous premise. Despite the role being much meatier than his previous cameos and providing ample opportunity for anyone to see his relative lack of acting ability, he cast himself. This decision earned him Razzie awards for Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Director.

The impression was made even worse by the introduction of a character that was closest to the film's human villain: a film critic portrayed by Bob Balaban as an arrogant, elitist ivory tower intellectual whom protagonist asks for advice that ultimately proves to be worthless. The character suffers a well-deserved demise at the hands of strange monsters. It is not hard to see this character as something of Shyamalan's preventive strike against his real-life colleagues who were keen to receive his work unfavourably.

Critics indeed did not like Lady in the Water, and there were plenty of reasons for it: wasted and poorly explained premise, underused characters, and a complicated plot that didn't make sense despite being spelled out to the audience like they were little children. To make matters worse, Lady in the Water was an unusually expensive film, but this did not translate onto the screen; instead, the film is limited to rather ordinary settings. This contributed to the film's failure at the box office and its reputation as the point when nobody could deny that Shyamalan's career took a downward trajectory.

On the other hand, Lady in the Water does have some redeeming qualities: Shyamalan puts cinematographer Christopher Doyle to good use, and Paul Giamatti puts in a valiant effort to make the best of his thankless role. However, these positives are overshadowed by the film's numerous flaws.

Sadly, it took more than one such disaster for Shyamalan to realize that he had made a mistake and start turning his career around.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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