Today’s quick review: Lady in the Water. One night, Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), the hard-working manager of an apartment building, makes a startling discovery: a strange woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) swimming in the pool. The woman introduces herself as Story, a water nymph sent to the surface world to inspire a writer in his work. But to help her fulfill her purpose and return home, Cleveland must protect her from an evil beast determined to stop her.
Lady in the Water is a fantasy movie from writer and director M. Night Shyamalan. Lady in the Water presents itself as a modern take on an ancient myth. Cleveland Heep finds himself in the middle of a bedtime story he has never heard before and must navigate its peculiar rules to get Story home safely. Lady in the Water has much of Shyamalan’s deliberate, moody directorial style, but it lacks the suspense or sense of wonder to make it worthwhile.
Lady in the Water struggles to achieve the storybook tone it’s going for. The rules of Story’s world are as arbitrary as any fairy tale, but without the accompanying sense of certainty from the characters. Cleveland ends up guessing blindly at what he needs to do, guided only by what cryptic clues he is able to gather from Story. As such, Lady in the Water plays out like a mystery whose stakes are unclear and whose solution shifts as it goes along.
Lady in the Water has other issues as well. The film’s slow pacing makes it hard to invest in the story, and it lacks the brooding tension Shyamalan uses to hook the viewer in his other films. The scale of the fantasy is small enough that the movie never builds up much in the way of drama or wonder, while the characters aren’t rich enough to pick up the slack. The conflict itself is rather abstract, told mostly through exposition rather than shown.
The end result is a slow, fickle movie that falls short of its ambitions. Shyamalan fans will be disappointed by its lack of suspense and the absence of the magnetic quality found in his best films. Fans of storybook fantasy will dislike by the story’s limited scope, mundane tone, and restricted fantasy elements. Lady in the Water earns some points for creativity, moody drama, and basic cinematic competence, but most viewers would be better off skipping.
For a more suspenseful, dramatic movie from M. Night Shyamalan, try The Village. For a darker, more romantic take on a similar premise, try The Shape of Water. For a much darker drama with a haunting fairy tale tone, check out Pan’s Labyrinth. For a more adventurous take on storybook fantasy, try The Princess Bride or Stardust. For a more personal brush with the inexplicable, check out K-PAX.
5.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for the seeds of a decent story let down by poor follow-through.