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Lady in the Water (2006)

Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
COUNTRY
USA
GENRE
Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Lady in the Water
RUNNING TIME
110 minutes
Producer:
Sam Mercer
M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter:
M. Night Shyamalan


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Cleveland Heep Paul Giamatti ½
Story Bryce Dallas Howard
Mr. Dury Jeffrey Wright
Harry Farber Bob Balaban ½
Anna Ran Sarita Choudhury
Young-Soon Cindy Cheung
Vick Ran M. Night Shyamalan
Reggie Freddy Rodriguez ½
Mr. Leeds Bill Irwin ½
Mrs. Bell Mary Beth Hurt ½
Joey Dury Noah Gray-Cabey
Goatee Smoker Jarred Harris

 

Review

It's difficult to determine whether M. Night Shyamalan's films have become increasingly more ambitious or increasingly less so. With Lady in the Water, you could probably make an argument for both. However, it is almost impossible to believe that Shyamalan while making this film sincerely thought he would be able to turn into a good one.

The only noticeable useful aspect of Lady in the Water is some scattered irony and sarcasms from time to time. But despite this, the film generally takes itself and the narrative way too seriously. With that said, it was going to be hard not to take this narrative too seriously, seeing as it has the subtleness and thematic interest of a story told by a 4-year-old. The Paul Giamatti character is the only interesting one among a lazy lineup, and the massively talented character actor grazes upon some elements of value, but in the end, what's interesting about his Cleveland Heep is not what Shyamalan uses him for.

Instead, Lady in the Water gets itself entangled in its irrelevant story, soaked in an embarrassingly overplotted, stunted offspring of an already clichéd fairytale. The acting ranges from thoroughly unimpressive to downright horrible (please do not look directly at Cindy Cheung while she speaks), and James Newton Howard reaches a career-high of counter-productiveness with his bloated score. Shyamalan has now reached the bottom. The good thing is that it can be only upwards from here.

Copyright © 21.1.2007 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang

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