M. Night Shyamalan is only batting about 600 in my book. Not a bad statistic if you're playing baseball. However, those 2 movies that brought his average down were nearly unforgivable. Lady in the Water wasn't one of his unforgivables. Those are Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense. ( I knew the suprise in The Village before I saw it so it actually made the movie much better.) I think the key to watching one of his films is to let go of your expectations. If you expect to much or expect that his movies will follow a pattern of some sort, you will be disappointed. I wanted to see Lady in the Water because I wanted to see how he would tell a bedtime story. In my mind, bedtime stories should calm you before you go back to sleep. They should set the world right when it's out of order. Would he be capabable of such a story?
After watching this movie, I would say that he is. You won't be sitting on the edge of your seat or covering your eyes, and you certainly won't feel cheated at the end. What you will get is a story, a fairy tale in a way, with a happy ending. Okay, maybe happy ending isn't completely accurate, but you will get closure that doesn't feel like it's been sprung upon you.
Things to like about this movie: Paul Giamatti - always a good milquetoast, the movie critic - the plot line that follows him is interesting, and the fact that the story for the film was from an actual bedtime story Shamalayn told his daughters. Things you may not like: seeing a lot of Shyamalan in the movie, the lack of real tension in the film, and the fact that no one really needs convincing that Story's story is true.
In general it a rather dark film. No glamour shots here and no stylistic virtuosity, but he's not realy known for that. The one moment of interest was the last shot of the film. The shot is from the bottom of the pool looking up through the water. An interesting way to end the story to be certain. Why put us there, at the bottom of the pool and not with the characters? I haven't quite decided the answer to that question myself, which is, in my mind, sometimes a good thing.
at December 27, 2006 10:52 PM