Review of Lady in the Water (2006) by Chris W — 10 Apr 2012

Okay, so this isn't quite the complete and utter failure that I had been led to believe that it was...but still, it is pretty bad. The film is basically a fairy tale bedtime story concerning Cleveland Heep- the superintendent of an apartment complex who discovers a sea nymph who entered into our world through the pool at the apartment cocmplex. She tries to get back to her world, but she's threatened by menacing creatures, and requires help from Cleveland and the various colorful tenants of the building.

Just looking at the broad concept (a supernatural thriller/fairy tale sort of bedtiem story thing) this isn't too bad. It's kinda unique, though the execution of it all is where there's trouble. The specific story itself is a little hokey, the script is atrocious, the cast, while notable, give some really dry, wooden, and downright awful performances, and to top it all off, the jokes suck, the film is unintentionally funny, there's tons of cliches, the bits where the 4th wall is broken really fall flat and induce facepalms, and it's all a bit of a bore and I didn't care too much. Also, Shyamalan really shows his narcissism here, but I won't spoil it by detailing specifics.

But, since I did give it a barely passing grade, that means it's not all bad. LIke I said, good cast, terrible work. The cinematography is quite wonderful (as should be expected), the direction is decent (I've always felt that Shyamalan was a far better director than a writer) but he's been far better, and I do think Howard is pretty, even if she often gets miscast or misdirected.

So yeah, bottom line, this film does mostly live up to its reputation. I liked some aspects of it, but it is essentially a really poor misguided piece of work.