Lady In The Water

Signs and The Village were a warning of the impending creative decline of M. Night Shyamalan. With Lady in the Water, he goes another step downhill. Visually, he tries to create a lingering, eerie mood, this time in a humble apartment block in Philadelphia. There’s the still swimming pool, the rustling grass, the ominous quiet and that shadowy figure in the pool.

The story behind the strange goings-on is ludicrous mumbo-jumbo which gets tagged as a modern-day fairytale. A bit like Little Mermaid and Splash but claiming to be far more deep and rich in its philosophy. The ostensible profundity, however, never hits home. The creatures from water and Man were in harmony till he took to violent ways. These creatures will come to try and awaken Man again. So, one day, Cleveland Heep (Giamatti), the caretaker of the apartment complex, notices someone breaking the rules by swimming after the curfew hour. It’s a narf or a sea nymph called Story (pale and wet Howard). To establish the haloed connection with mankind she has to look for a vessel, a writer. He turns out to be small-time author Vick (Shyamalan acting badly) whose novel, The Cookbook, Story predicts, will inspire people.

While Vick gets inspired, she helps Heep come to terms with his tragic past and cures him of some silly stuttering. Having done her good deed, the lady has to go home but the Scrunt (a wolfish grass-coated creature straight out of the Ramsay horror shows) comes in the way. She needs a guardian, a healer and a guild to help her get back safely. As Heep goes about looking for these guys in the apartment block, the only suspense for the audience is who would they be and how they help. The most extraneous of characters prove to be most consequential. And there are many oddballs: the bicep-building Regie who works out only one side of his body, a bunch of quirky band players, a crossword junkie and even a film reviewer.

At the end, everything turns out utterly absurd, silly and laughable. As an aside, I was told that Wong Kar-Wai’s cinematographer Chris Doyle has shot the film. Which is, perhaps, the only good thing about it.

High Fives

bollywood
1. Omkara
2. Golmaal
3. Krrish
4. The Killer
5. Corporate

Hollywood
1. Miami Vice
2. Pirates of the Caribbean II
3. John Tucker Must Die
4. Monster House
5.The Any Bully

Pop
1. Now That’s What I Call Music
2. Alright Still (Lily Allen)
3. Eyes Open (Snow Patrol)
4. Under the Iron Sea (Keane)
5. These Streets (Paolo Nutini)

Courtesy: Film Information