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Lady in the Water

Sound (1)
2.7
Plot (1)
3.3
Cast (1)
2.6
Special Effects (1)
3.4
Length & Pace (1)
3.2
Cinematography (1)
3.2

Directors: M. Night Shyamalan

Writers: M. Night Shyamalan

Release: 21 July 2006 (USA)

Tagline: Time is running out for a happy ending.

Plot: Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.

Cast: Paul Giamatti - Cleveland Heep, Bryce Dallas Howard - Story, Jeffrey Wright - Mr. Dury, Bob Balaban - Harry Farber, Sarita Choudhury - Anna Ran, Cindy Cheung - Young-Soon Choi, M. Night Shyamalan - Vick Ran, Freddy Rodr�guez - Reggie, Bill Irwin - Mr. Leeds, Mary Beth Hurt - Mrs. Bell, Noah Gray-Cabey - Joey Dury, Joseph D. Reitman - Long Haired Smoker, Jared Harris - Goatee Smoker, Grant Monohon - Emaciated Smoker, John Boyd - One-Eyebrow Smoker

Runtime: 110 min

Country: USA

Language: English

Company: Warner Bros. Pictures

Links: IMDb Profile

Categories: Thriller

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Trailer

joekhor
Reviews: 63
Points: 0 (Level 1)
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2.7

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3.2

Lady In The Water

The Gist

Paul Giamatti is a condo caretaker who sees dead people. Sorry, I meant that he sees a redhead chick by the name of Bryce Dallas Howard emerging out of the swimming pool. He interrogates her and finds out that she is lifted directly from a fairy-tale story book. In order to send her back to the fairy-tale neverland (not the Michael Jackson ranch), he needs to bring her to see a few entities: The Writer, The Guild, The Translator and The One Who-Tells-The-Truth-All-The-Time. (sorry don’t remember the real names) Will Paul successfully find all of them? Will the chlorine in the swimming pool eventually bleach Bryce’s red hair?

What Do I Think?

A fresh break from the summer blockbuster which consisted of remakes, sequels and adaptations, here we have an all original storyline and concept. Being an M Night Shyamalan movie, we know that the ending has an unexpected twist to it. Persistent followers might just want to skip the whole movie and jump straight to the ending to see the twist, just like how most of you read my reviews: skip all the crap and just go straight to the rating section.

I personally have never missed any of his films since The Sixth Sense, knowing so I have decided to make detailed observations during the whole film so I could guess the ending. Here are my observations:

Shyamalan uses the same camera angles from his other films to illustrate the suspense of the story.
He also uses the same kind of creepy music.
Christopher Doyle, a highly regarded cinematographer in Hong Kong (2046, Infernal Affairs, Hero) is employed to be one in this film.
Shyamalan is one of the actors, not cameo, in the film. You will observe that he CANNOT ACT. It is so distracting that you might mistake yourself watching The Making Of… instead of a full length movie.
Much like John Woo, he usually reuses actors from his previous films like Bryce was from The Village. Then Joaquin Phoenix from The Village was then in The Signs. Then Bruce Willis in both The Sixth Sense and The Unbreakable. Last but not least, M Night Shyamalan in them every single movie mentioned.
Being a Hollywood movie, the special effects sucked quite badly. I could have sworn that Shaolin Soccer (HK)’s CGI was way much better.

The movie paces itself quite steadily, eliminating the possible bore factor of the story slowly unfolding itself. Paul and Bryce were excellent choices for their roles. My only complaint other than Shyamalan’s acting is Paul’s stuttering which is quite distracting as well. I have to give credit to the director though. He also served as the screenwriter and the producer of the movie. People always remember him as the “unexpected ending” director but fails to acknowledge him as a storyteller. He paints the whole picture well and uses the brush skillfully. Critics should give him a break! And Mr Shyamalan should not lash out his anger at them too. Gotta have manners, dude! Be a pro!

Rating: 7/10.
I have always liked Shyamalan’s films and this is one of his best by far. Most importantly, not a sequel, remake or an adaptation!

Notes: He takes a chance to get back at the film critics in this film. Probably that’s why critics hated this film so much.

Last updated: 2009-08-11 21:37:12 by joekhor

2009-08-11 09:40:09

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