Lady In The Water
Chris 
Few movies ever aspire to be as good as Lady In The Water, the latest film from director M. Night Shyamalan. That is understandable. When someone strives for greatness, it seems as if the rest of the world lies in wait for a chance to tear at it like a pack of wolves surrounding a helpless animal, or in this case, a skrunt waiting in the grass for a chance to kill a narf, the sea nymph character played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Shyamalan understands this, and has laced his film with a variety of subtexts, one of which deals directly with the critical eyes and ears of film critics. It is beautifully done, but it is not the reason why this film is great.
What makes Lady In The Water a truly brilliant film, what elevates it from a simple bedtime story into the realm of historical cinema, is not the subtexts, the acting, the writing, or the directing - all of which are good - but quite simply how well the movie evokes emotion: hope, grief, doubt, love and bravery. The last time I watched a film that inspired such powerful and heartfelt emotions in me I was a child watching Steven Spielberg’s E.T.
I won’t be the first person, or the last, to compare Lady In The Water to E.T. The well-known internet critic for Ain’t It Cool News, Moriarty, already drew that comparison a few weeks ago when he wrote:
If SIGNS was his CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, then LADY IN THE WATER is obviously struggling to be his E.T.
Unlike Moriarty though, I don’t think Lady In The Water struggles at all to be Shyamalan’s E.T. It is equally as brilliant, emotionally charged and powerful. It hits all the right notes and then some.
The poster for Lady In The Water describes it as a bedtime story. It is that - a very good and fanciful tale - but it is so much more. It is a commentary on the War in Iraq, and indeed the stupidity of all wars. It is a commentary on what it means to have hope and to be brave even when we don’t feel like we are. It is a commentary on what it means to be special, to have a gift and to accept our gifts that we’ve been given. It is a commentary on the film critics of the world and their inability to find joy and wonder in the films they critique. It is a commentary on human beings, and how we are truly one entity in this universe even if we feel alone and isolated. It is a commentary on what it means to have purpose in this life, even if we don’t see it in ourselves. And maybe most important (and certainly most touching) it is a commentary on grief and loss. One of the most powerful scenes in the movie deals with a character’s emotions related to a personal loss, and finally reaching the stage of acceptance.
As far as the bedtime story goes, it is fun, new and interesting. I’ve never been a fan of bedtime stories, but Shaymalan’s story has the feel of invention on-the-fly, like a parent making up the story as they go, creating new characters and rules each evening to entertain their child. As a parent I found the story compelling, and I liked the way Shaymalan divulged it in small bits and pieces as the film progressed, thus constantly changing what we (and the characters) know. I felt like a child experiencing this world for the first time as my creative parents invented it along the way, just for me.
Paul Giamatti is wonderful as Cleveland Heap, the superintendant of the building, and a man with a secret in his past. He plays the part with just the right combination of vulnerability and down-to-earth attitude; he is believable the entire way. We forget - in fact we never even consider - that this is a man who has spent his career as a character actor and never carried a film on his own before. He does get some help from Bryce Dallas Howard though, who is perfect in the role of Story, the narf from the Blue World.
Finally, a thought about Shaymalan’s “twists.” He’s made a career of throwing curveballs at his audience toward the end of a film. He started to get away from that practice with Signs and The Village. Here, he abandons the trademark twist completely. Instead, he borrows one of his other tactics to build this movie around - the jigsaw puzzle from Signs. If you recall in that film there were a lot of disparate pieces - clues - that he laid out in the movie, and none of them seemed to be important at all, only existing to define the quirks and traits of the characters. Yet, at the end of the film they all added up and had an important role in the outcome of the story. Shaymalan takes that trick and uses it to great effect in Lady In The Water. The clues are all there for the audience to decipher, and when everything finally comes together it is magic.
I doubt another film this year will be this good. Lady In The Water is a rare film. A special film. It’s probably going to take the film critics of the world a few years to get over the shot that Shaymalan takes at them in this movie; they don’t enjoy taking the criticism that they so often dish out. But if you’re the kind of person who sees the glass as half-full, if you feel hope easily and can imagine wildly, and if you like to have a great filmmaker pull your heartstrings, then this movie is for you.
Go enjoy it.
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