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Night Shyamalan may be among the most widely misunderstood directors in the business, and he seems reluctant to do much to clarify. To me, he is a poet, and his poems are fables. "Lady In the Water" is a Shyamalan primer; it contains everything you need to know to watch all of NMS's movies. The film is controversial, because it is not typical, naturalistic filmmaking. It's a supernatural tale that's (mostly) about the nature of people. For those interested, it's also rich in eastern symbolism. But above all it's the tale of a life saved, of people rising to the occasion, of the magic of story (Story is the name of one of the lead characters). Watch it as a child, as we all used to, immersed in fable, and be charmed.
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Lady in the Water I didn't know what to expect heading into Lady in the Water, it seemed like a neat concept but I wondered how it would play out. It's great. A great cast and an absolutely unbelievable story. Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard are absolutely spectacular, and the rest of the supporting cast does a great job as well. A lot of M. Night fans that I've talked to were dissapointed that Lady in the Water doesn't feature a twist ending, I was at first, but I realized that a story this great doesn't need a twist ending. Lady in the Water will have you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, and the way all the characters tie together is absolutely fabulous. It might not be M. Nights best work, but he proves once again that he is one of the best Storytellers in Hollywood. Final Verdict: 5/5 Rent or Buy?: Any M. Night fan will want to own this one, as will any fan of a great fantasy story. IF YOU FIND THIS REVIEW HELPFUL PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE. Thank you.Read full review
Lady In The Water Rating PG-13 for some frightening sequences Release Date* July 21, 06 I was able to see the movie at a special screening because I won tickets of a sweepstakes. I was quite pleased with this movie, actually. I know it got a little terrible reveiws on websites,(and a little here), but it just depends on what kind of person you are. If you like magical creatures and you have an imagination and you liked The Village another peice of work from M. Night Shyamalan, you may like this but if you expect too much out of M. Night Shymalan and expect something "Huge" then you're probobly not going to like this movie. I think M. Night Shyamalan should've stuck to the story plot of the bedtime story he wrote as a book. But all-in-all, the movie is descent and is a pretty magical tale. What I liked a lot about the movie, was the music. The music was beautful and elegant, James Newton Howard always working with M. Night Shymalan (as he did in The Village and other M. Night Shymalan movies.) Cleveland Heep is a a building manager for "The Cove" an apartment building, behind it is a pool. He has his own little house by the pool, and some nights he hears splashing noises in it. One night, he discovers it's a water narf from the Blue World, another world. Her name is Story. She explained everything to Cleveland, especially how she came into our world; the swimming pool. But, when the door to "our" world becomes open, more will come "through." But, Cleveland and with the help of other people that work at the apartment building discover that this is just a story and that they are in it. Falling in love with her, evil creatures from her world enter our world and our world is in Story's hands. A pretty good twist is in this movie, but it's kind of predictable like some other reveiwers said in their reveiw. The acting is pretty good, but I don't think Paul Giamatti (Cleaveland) was right for his role. He just didn't seem to fit the part. He's a wonderful actor, but this movie wasn't right for him. But, Bryce Dallas Howard did an excellent job as the Story, screaming the line "Cleveland! Run!" that made my skin crawl with a weird feeling. The story is well laid, but like some movie critics said, "M. Night Shymalan makes it up as he goes along." This movie is recommended if you're into magical creatures and stuff like that. If you liked The Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, you may like it. I liked them both enough to give them both 5 stars. This is recommended only if you're a Shymalan fan! Hope you enjoy! Jordan Overall grade* B+Read full review
At one time M. Night Shyamalan was an exciting film maker. With his first major film, The Sixth Sense, he crafted an interesting and engrossing tale that was well received by the public and critics alike. His next film, Unbreakable, was a bit of a let down, but still a solid effort. Unfortunately his films have continued to decline in quality. The low point in his oeuvre has to be his latest film, Lady in the Water, a bed time story that Night would tell his daughters before they went to sleep. It may have been interesting to a child at night, but as a movie it comes across as a muddled, self-indulgent, and ultimately unsatisfying film that fails on many levels. There were a lot of things that were wrong with this movie. The characters were flat and lifeless, the story was filled with more false endings than a dozen Spielberg films, and there were numerous plot holes that were hard to ignore. What it boiled down to though was that it's really hard to care what happens to any of the characters. There just isn't any context to place these people into. A good story to compare this to is another fairy tale, The Lord of the Rings. In Tolkien's work, the reader knows exactly where the heroes stand, what they have to do and the consequences for failure. In this film viewers never have that feeling. What happens if the Scrunt kills Story? Well, she'll be dead, but so what? Why did she reveal herself to Heep when she was hiding from him earlier? Why was she hiding? It's questions like this that make it hard to enjoy this film. Another deficit is Shyamalan's directorial style. I've enjoyed the way he shot other films, but this one looks like something someone fresh out of film school would shoot. He doesn't concentrate on telling the story but rather seeing how many fancy and unique shots he can incorporate into the movie. There are a lot of scenes where the interesting part of the sequence isn't shown in an attempt to build interest. When the acerbic film critic Harry Farber (Bob Balaban) is introduced to a new neighbor, Cindy Cheung, you see Farber's eye's nearly pop out of his skull as he stares at the Asian beauty, though on screen viewers can only see her back. It's cute once or twice, but eventually you start noticing all of Night's film tricks at the expense of the story. These are a constant reminder that you're watching a movie and that makes it much harder to get into the story and empathize with the characters. The acting was only mediocre at best too. In order to make Paul Giamatti's character more human, Night decided to give him a stutter. This may have looked good on paper, but in the movie it just seems oddly irritating. Bryce Dallas Howard's talents are not put to use either. She spends much of the film sitting in a shower, and when she talks she always whispers. She has a vague drugged look throughout the movie. Pretty much all she does is stare off into space. Night himself gives an amateur performance as the savior of mankind. The only character that I was really drawn to was Bob Balaban's as the arrogant film critic. His role was funny but suggests that Night needs to learn the meaning of subtlety. Please let us know if this review was helpful (click below) If you have any questions about this review please contact us at contact@ck-auctions.com Posted by CK-AuctionsRead full review
To put it it short and sweet, not M. Night Shyamalan's best work. But still a SCARY good time. Plus it has a great line of, There is no originality in movies anymore. And yet this movie is very original . Bryce Dallas Howard and Paul Giamatti are both very good in the movie. This is not a movie you could write a review for and tell all about what happens. This is just one of those movies you have to see. The Blu-ray disk version looks great.
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