2006 Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep 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.
Film #4 of Gustav's M.National Shyamalan-a-thon
I thought about it, but honestly could not arrive at an answer. I do not know what was going through M.Night’s mind when he came up with this idea. Even more baffling is what gave him the impression that this would work and be accepted. The concept is total bollocks. The juxtaposition of fairy tale elements along with reality simply does not work here, as all the characters are mere devices, cardboard-like, uninteresting, ill-conceived, and dreadfully executed. They come off looking utterly dim-witted as they are shown to comfortably believe in such fatuous happenings.
Part of my frustration stems from the fact that the film did not even deliver on the promise of an…
This corpse has been picked over plenty, and while I'll stipulate that it's a bit undercooked and pretty silly, on a rewatch I think it's one of those things you just have to deliberately slide into, which makes sense given that it's all of a piece with SIGNS and THE VILLAGE in its depiction of an insular community or group united by belief. You can choose to read Bob Balaban's character as a snipe at all critics, or you can take it as a representation of blanket, unfeeling skepticism. Up to you. Anyway, Shyamalan may exhibit all manner of ill-advised creative hubris but that doesn't mask his exceptional capabilities as a visual filmmaker. It's hard to make an ugly movie…
I often talk about how much I want an adaptation of Stephen King's Lisey's Story but Lady In The Water is pretty much the... exact vibe for me. Super important that almost every shot before the Lady is introduced is obstructed - there is something missing from the lives of everybody in this, the decreasing length of Shyamalan's shots slowly finding the core of what makes these people tick - but this isn't a film about people; it's about conflict (involving people). If the Water is purity/the capacity to imagine & believe/where all myth comes from then the Land - the location of our narrative - is a blight on the freedom of half-lit 'truer' perception. Just look at how this…
Film #6 of Gustav's M. National Shyamalan-a-thon
Lady in the Water proves that M. Night Shyamalan is on drugs. This movie is flat out stupid. It seriously didn't make an ounce of sense. There was nothing interesting going on at all; it was a total bore-fest that nearly put me to sleep. There is no plot and the film's setting is an apartment complex swimming pool. This is the dumbest "fairytale" ever. I said WTF about 7 times during this movie. Lady in the Water is actually worse than The Last Airbender, believe it or not. Also why does Shyamalan put himself in all of his movies!? He is a horrendous actor. I guess his arrogance level is just through the roof.
The first film made after Shyamalan was really, truly widely rejected, with one clear focus: a world of characters who cannot accept pure storytelling. His pain is at the center of this solar system.
There is so much about this modern day fairy tale that I loved! It even managed to squeeze a couple tears out of me! So why does it feel like a rough draft! Perhaps the editor got scissor happy and left one too many film clips on the cutting room floor!
The highlight of the film in my eyes was Paul Giamatti he worked his arse off and moved me to tears with his gut wrenching performance!
Final Word: I can't recommend a film that feels like a first draft no matter how much potential I saw in it!
Was this a good movie? no.
Was the plot kinda of loose? yeah
but honestly, I'm not in a good place and this movie made me believe for this hour and 30 minutes that I could be special too. I don't like it because its this stunning piece of film, I like it because it's a silly movie that I watched at the right time. That's one of the good things about film though, everybody's favorite film is something special to them, not because it's an award winner.
Why the fuck do people dislike this movie with such tenacity?
Loose plot aside. This is obviously meant to be taken as seriously as the fairytale it is structured around. Freddy Rodriguez' character only works out with his right arm. He has a normal arm and the other is a jacked-Schwarzenegger arm. He looks ridiculous. Satire. End of discussion.
Shamalyn casting himself as a great author is obviously pretentious. Spike Lee starring in over half his films is no different.
Characters are all plot devices-no shit, it's a fairytale archetype of narrative. I don't expect much depth once the story ends the same as when the film ends. They find their purpose, the movie literally states that verbatim.
Shamalyn made…
M. Night Shymalan: Man, critics totally blow! I can't believe they called The Village mediocre and underwhelming. Well I'll show them! I'll make the artsiest, metaphorical-iest, most personal film I've ever made which is all about how great I am and how all critics are destroyers of art and all things creativ...
Critics: blast the everloving shit out of his film
M. Night Shymalan: HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!?
B-
"Man thinks they are each alone in this world. It is not true. You are all connected. One act can one day affect all."
A true dark fantasy exhibiting the bizarre traits of an odd tale as it bends its group of unity in belief above the mild ridiculousness, Lady in the Water manages to squeeze out a few drops of depicted emotion and represented obstruction through a relaxing space given to its notions at the end of a indigenous tale which is accommodated by Paul Giamatti's amazing performance, another wonderful score from James Newton Howard, and the beauty within its main image, however, its disjointed faults and ridiculous oversimplifications relying on a community of mixed pieces severely weighs down the purposeful line, no matter how fitting it may feel; I love M. Night Shyamalan's shots at film critics.
20/100
THIS is when Shyamalan went to shit. Lady in the Water's cast looks a little promising but is quickly crushed as Bryce Dallas Howard plays a completely uninteresting nymph, and Paul Giamatti tries his hardest to make his stutter sound real but it ends up being terrible. Shyamalan's dialogue is wasteful, failing to grab the audiences attention nor interest and taking up a portion of the run time (which feels like an eternity might I add) with countless lines of exposition for the audience to understand the outlandish plot. Nothing much works here, it feels too far-fetched and it's setting and side characters are at best below average. Painfully boring and riddled with exposition, Lady in the Water solidifies the downfall of a once great director.
M. Night Shyamalan Ranked
i have nothing to say about the movie itself (i don't even know how i made it through), but listen this is so shyamalan type of bad that it got me thinking how we all collectively consider him a bad and inconsistent director when you know.. he seems like a really smart dude, with tons of ideas, his own outlook at things and a really distinguishing style and all of his movies are so.... shyamalan that despite how fucking bad it was (or more like confusing and messy all around) i still believe that dude is really one outstanding director, for better or worse, who just keeps producing his own shit without regrets and doing what he loves without giving a damn if we get it or not, so at some level.. kudos to him ?
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