M. Night Shyamalan has just released the first trailer for his new movie, 'The Lady In The Water'...
The premise is something about a mermaid/something in the swimming pool that Paul Giamatti looks after. No joke.
Could this be a return to the previous form present in 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable', or another dud like 'Signs' and the laughably bad, 'The Village'?
Shyamalan makes great looking movies and he has some orginal ideas, albeit if his application of these ideas is incredibly derivative of Hitchcock...Anyway, I hope this is a return to form...
__________________ Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
I've liked all his movies, and can't figure out for the life of me why people badmouth "Signs" and "The Village". Misrepresentatio in marketing was the kiss of death for "The Village". Nobody in the WORLD could have predicted the almost genius ending. "Signs" has great cinematography, Welles level framing and visual narrative, and always, Shyamalan's signature credibility. It was the "worst" of his 4 films, but it's still a favorite.
This one looks interesting to say the least, and while the trailer is very ambiguous, the plot outline I have read is literary genius and I know he can pull it off. He's throwing Bryce Dallas Howard a bone, and that only makes me more confident it'll be worth seeing.
I loved Signs, thought it was his best film and had the best ending of all of his movies. I really liked his approach of abandoning the generic twist ending for a more reasonable, plot completion that had relevence to the story and simply connected the dots rather then pull the rug from under us.
The endings of The Village and Sixth Sense were both pretty silly and more about simply surprising the viewer then adding a relevent event to the films - "Bet you didn't see that coming eh!?" This is especially true with The Village, who's ending was, as Ebert said "One step in the narrative latter above 'it was all a dream'".
His new movie sounds very interesting, though possibly somewhat similar to Mermaid in the Manhole in basic theme. Haven't really heard enough about it to know for sure, but the plot of "a dude finds a sea nimph/mermaid and befriends it with eerie consequences" sounds very similar.
__________________
Last edited by BackFire on Dec 3rd, 2005 at 11:57 AM
We have a thread for this in the Sci-fi forum, If anyone's intereste here.
But I'm a huge fan of M. night. He has yet to let me down with a single one of his films. I saw 'The village' with a few friends less movie going than I am. They were unaware of M. night's technique in a film, but I was very aware. They also thought it was one of those regular horror movies that you see just to get scared, But I knew, horror movie or not, this would be great. But they hated it just because it wasn't a cheap horror flick, and they ACTUALLY tried to make a movie interesting for once! So I walked out of the theater, my mind racing, and they walked out of the theater snarling and spitting at the film. They were disappointed to see that the monsters [SPOILER - highlight to read]: were not real and the story false advertised. It's as if the Twist didn't phase them.
"Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) 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." When I read the plot outline, I can't help but to wonder how in the world he is going to pull a twist like his other movies. But I have much faith in the man, and I believe he can pull it off.
One movie By M. Night that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is Unbreakable. That is probably my personal Favorite by M. Night. The ending to that movie the most chilling out of all his films IMO. And I think I walked out of the movie theater a better person.
The one thing I'm most excited about this film is the fact that Paul Giamatti is the lead, and did you hear the guy singing? That was Josh Groban, the greatest artist in the world!
__________________ "Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." -Alexander Hamilton
The problem with 'Signs' was that the aliens were incredibly bad. I think 'Scary Movie 3' parodied it perfectly with the aliens who can't comprehend door handles thing...(I'm not imagining this, am I?
'The Village' may have suffered from misleading advertising, but as Backfire said, the whole conceit was laughably immature.
'The Sixth Sense' was good, and 'Unbreakable' was excellent, so I just hope he can find his original footing again because he has the potential to make amazing movies.
I hope this new one doesn't stray anywhere near the 'It's all in his head' territory...The possibility is lurking, for sure.
__________________ Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Yeah, the aliens in Signs were silly and some logical holes in a few parts, but I thought the rest of the movie was so strong, with excellent storytelling and plot development that I didn't mind.
The ending was like a bad episode of the X-Files. What it did have going for it was the opening premise, the early suspense and mystery, and some great cinematography.
I think M. Night Shyamalan is going to be great director, but his last 2 movies stank.
__________________ Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
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Nov 19th, 2005 08:06 PM
