A Review by Phil Calabro
2006, Warner Brothers/Legendary Pictures, Dir. M. Night Shyamalan – Starring Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, M. Night Shyamalan, Sahrita Choudhury, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Cindy Cheung, June Kyoko Lu
When popular director Shyamalan brought his project ‘Lady in the Water’ to Touchstone execs, they turned him down immediately. Although this wasn’t a completely flawed product that he was exhibiting, I can understand where the execs were coming from. Chances are, like many of the audience members will see in ‘Lady’, they didn’t know what kind of movie this was. Gone is the trademark twist endings, gone is much of the tension from his earlier films. Rather, the tagline ‘A Bedtime Story’ is probably a better indicator – a slow-paced, relatively entertaining film that showcases good performances but reveals a fault in Shyamalan’s direction. Viewers, such as myself, will find ourselves lost among this eclectic group of characters and their quest to help a mystical ‘narf’. But the story unfolds almost too rapidly, introducing elements of this fairy tale at warp speed. Although Shyamalan has a blast toying with the different blend of folks in this story, he never takes time to tie them in properly with the story. For what it’s worth, ‘Lady in the Water’ is still a spellbinding movie of sorts – maintaining respect with its audience (unlike ‘The Village’) and having a great sense of humor. However, if this trend of Shyamalan’s overcontrol and indulgence persists in his future movies, that may spell trouble.
Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) is the depressed super of the Cove Condominiums a walk away from Philadelphia. Despite his awkward appearance and perputual stutter, everybody knows Cleveland and knows him as a caring friend. But it’s Cleveland’s past that still plagues him, as he sits up all night writing in his little black journal about his feelings and life. Woken up by the noise of a splash, Heep walks out to the swimming pool only to catch himself some mystical woman - a “narf” named Story (Howard). The old Chinese tenant Mrs. Choi (Lu) explains a story about the narf world and their magic, which leads Cleveland to believe that he’s stuck smack dab in the middle of an ancient ritual - his stuttering even disappears when he’s around her. Therefore, some of the residents of the Cove begin to help Story to let her return to ‘The Blue World’, and find the man she was supposed to find while on dry land. Some of these include Vic Ran (Shyamalan), an amateur writer with a promising future, Mr. Dury (Wright), a crossword puzzle genius, and the ultra-negative film critic Harry Farber (Balaban) - who always seems to have some cliche to point out.
I’m sure critics and moviegoers alike will find personal problems with ‘Lady in the Water’, but there’s no denying the marvelous job by Paul Giamatti as poor Cleveland Heep. Despite his hokey moniker, Giamatti pumps the protagonist with heart and soul. Gone is the cynicism from ‘Sideways’ and ‘American Splendor’, and now a caring yet troubled figure who’s still trying to figure out his purpose in life. Amidst the bevy of offbeats he takes care of, Cleveland is rational - a friend to all. Giamatti gives the audience a grade-A job for a B-grade movie. Bryce Dallas Howard plays our “Lady”: Story, a mystical “narf” from the “blue world”. To be fair, I blame her weak characterization on Shyamalan. Night composes Story’s life from nothing but vague bits and pieces from a cornball myth - which in turn is executed poorly by Howard. As an actress, she appears as disable and hollow as her role in Night’s ‘Village’. Story is not an interesing, or particularly attractive, character - she’s a hub for the remaining dramatis to spin around. Shyamalan carves several other roles around the main duo, most through his own self-indulgence. A humorous performance by Bob Balaban as pessimistic film critic Harry Farber mirrors Shyamalan’s own distaste of his detractors - an immature move. Most shameful of all, Shyamalan portrays a young writer, whose future is foretold by Story: his work will inspire future world leaders, and will die a martyr for his words. In the infamous words of Moon Unit Zappa: gag me with a spoon.
Beyond this cinematic decadence, Shyamalan still has some craft up his sleeve. Visually, ‘Lady in the Water’ is gorgeous. There is less focus on underwater filming (don’t be fooled by TV spots), but more on the quirkiness of the Cove’s tenants. The cinematography and how it interacts with its cast borders on embodying Jared Hess’ style, as much of the humor stems from its spontaneity. For those in expectance for traditional Shyamalan horror and its respective twists, this is not it. The final product is a very surreal piece. So surreal, that Shyamalan has plenty of trouble trying to tell its story - and keeps flubbing around towards the last 30 minutes for progress. ‘Lady’ has roughly a handful of good scares to keep audiences on their toes, but is not sufficient enough to keep them interested in the story. It’s been taglined as a “bedtime story by M. Night Shyamalan”, so how audiences will react are guaranteed - either they’ll stay awake and have patience to understand Story’s purpose, or be lulled quickly to sleep with visions of sugar plums in their heads.
Shyamalan’s control is begin to destroy his films, as he is losing touch with audiences and his luster is slowly disappearing by each movie. Although ‘Lady in the Water’ has its pros, there’s no denying a sense of smugness encased in the celluloid. And why bring Giamatti into this? He’s respectable, sir. Give him a break.
