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A terrifying showdown with the dreaded Scrunt
It’s been the general consensus for years that since The Sixth Sense, the movies of M. Night Shyamalan have been increasingly greater disappointments. The question has been, with each new film, would the director return to the level of brilliance that made his first blockbuster success such a memorable benchmark, and conversely, how much worse could an M. Night movie get? Lady in the Water answers these questions.
It’s apparent now that the director of The Sixth Sense either no longer exists, or else he created that gem while in the grip of converging influences that will never come again.
Lady in the Water is meant to be a depiction of how a myth or a fairy tale could intrude on everyday reality and change the lives of those caught up in it. Unfortunately the fairy tale tapestry at the heart of Lady in the Water is so poorly woven, so full of holes and frayed around the edges, that it plays out like a tattered mess. It feels like a story invented by an amateur comedian on the first night of a beginner’s improv class.
Apparently, Shyamalan’s formerly supportive producers at Disney Studios felt the same way when they dragged their heels on the greenlighting of this project. Rather than accepting a negative critique, the director not only turned his back on Disney to be embraced by Warners, but he wrote a scathing book about how his vision was so narrow-mindedly unappreciated.
The problem with Shyamalan’s later works is his inability to recognize the point at which boredom or incredulity shatter a viewer’s suspension of disbelief, and both of those destructive features drench Lady in the Water like a suffocating wave.
In addition, Shyamalan has finally
given up his trademark “twist
ending” and replaced it
with what must have been intended
as twists to its meandering
plot. Unfortunately these twists
play out like interruptions
in a badly related story, like
when a would-be raconteur peppers
a tale with “oh, I forgot
to mention…,” or
“except for the fact that…”.
Rather than providing imaginative surprises, these endless complications and contradictions are eye-rolling rather than eye-popping.
Lady in the Water begins with a leaden recitation of a myth in which a race of prescient and wise sea-dwellers (called narfs) become alienated from Mankind. In our time, they seek to renew their benevolent influence by quickening a unique power to impart history-changing knowledge in one pre-ordained human.
The narfs’ emissary is
a girl named Story (the Gelfling-faced
Dallas Bryce Howard), who splashes
around in the swimming pool
of a middle-class apartment
complex until she decides to
save the life of the sad-sack
manager / custodian, a world-weary
man named Cleveland Heep (Paul
Giamatti).
Shyamalan laboriously dribbles out
the complexities of narf legend
through an irritatingly cranky
Asian neighbor-lady who conveniently
learned it as a bedtime story
in her childhood.
M. Night has explained that the
story told in Lady in the Water
was indeed a bedtime story, one
that he invented to tell his own
children. The mistake Shyamalan
made in creating his screenplay
was to present this naive, awkward
tale as anything more than a story
improvised for children by a loving
father. To have framed the tale
in the style of The Princess Bride
would have covered a multitude
of sins.
The actors in Lady in the Water
perform adequately in shallowly
written roles, but special praise
must be given to Paul Giamatti
who makes Cleveland Heep a sympathetic
and believable character, even
when the script makes him do and
say unbelievable things.
No doubt this bedtime story as
told to the Shyamalan children
served it's purpose in putting
them to sleep. Unfortunately,
it retains that power over movie
audiences as well. |
