Lady in the Water Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)July 25th, 2006
LADY IN THE WATER
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
In "Lady in the Water," Paul Giamatti plays a super with a stutter.
Not a super as in superhero but a super as in superintendent, the everyman handyman of a suburban Philadelphia apartment complex whose days are spent unblocking clogged toilets, changing light bulbs, and/or ridding tenants of their unwanted, eight-legged guests (as in the opening scene, in which Giamatti's Cleveland Heep--a good name, that-- thumps away at an unseen pest until it's, he assures the present (and petrified) Hispanic sisterhood, quite dead).
Oddly, Cleveland's stutter momentarily disappears whenever he's in the presence of Story ("Manderlay"'s Bryce Dallas Howard), a young woman he pulls from "The Cove"'s pool one evening and who, true to her name, spins a tall tale about another blue world, a prophetic, imminent meeting, and a vicious, wolf-like creature called a "scrunt" poised to do her harm. Cleveland, naturally enough, doesn't believe any of this until he mentions it to one of his neighbors, Young-Soon Choi (a spunky Cindy Cheung), whose mother seems well versed in Story's magical bedtime tale. It's one that appears to require the involvement of a Guardian, a Healer, a Gild, and other key figures in order for events to conclude in that happily-ever-after fashion.
M. Night Shyamalan, the man who unleashed "The Sixth Sense," "Signs," and "The Village," likewise spins this offbeat fairytale with cool, calculated assurance. "Lady in the Water" is somewhat of a departure for him: it's more fantastical that his previous pictures--somewhat "lighter," certainly--but that's not to say the film doesn't have its share of scares, especially when the scrunt (which is able to disguise itself in the grass) attacks. Shyamalan's trump card is, of course, his cast, especially the wonderful Giamatti ("Sideways," "Cinderella Man"), who lends the watery tale much weight (if not exactly credibility; suffice it to say "Lady in the Water" would have been a *completely* different picture had the producers gone with their alternate choice, Kevin Costner!).
Cleveland, a former doctor it turns out, relates to the sheltered Story because he's as much an outsider as she is, hiding out as the development's menial employee following (and to avoid confronting) a difficult incident in his recent past. As Story, Howard is appropriately angelic and waif-life, cowering in a shower stall like a brutalized Carrie White, and Bob Balaban has a nice, self-referential turn as film critic Howard Farber (and we all know what happens to *them*!).
Last but not least Shyamalan, as is his usual tendency, has also written himself a meaty role, that of burgeoning writer Vick Ran whose presence in the proceedings will feature prominently (the actor/writer/director appears surprisingly comfortable on-screen; Vick's relationship with his sister Anna, played by Sarita Choudhury, is a lot of fun, echoing the relationship between Young-Soon Choi and her cranky mother).
Truth be told I've never been a huge fan of the Gladwyne-based filmmaker, finding most of his films to be unnecessarily expository, succumbing too easily to conventions, or simply overwritten. But the engaging elements that make up "Lady in the Water" have a real resonance--and genuine warmth--to them. Here, at last, is an M. Night Shyamalan film that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.
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David N. Butterworth
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