Well into the range of mediocrity, M. Night Shyamalan's fifth and least potent attempt at horror barely makes it over the halfway point of decency. "Startling" revelations become tiring and predictable in a plot that is unnecessarily dialog driven and dull. It is not that there are no interesting people in the plot; they are unique enough to earn whatever screen time they get, like a body-builder who only works out his right side "for scientific purposes"; but the whole ordeal seems pointless, and we ask ourselves what good really came from the lady's appearance in the pool?
For some reason, the pool of The Cove apartment complex is shaped like an eye, with its pupil shifted to one side, the lowest point of the deep end. Every night Cleveland Heep, the caretaker of the complex, follows the pool's gaze from his isolated cabin until he notices a water nymph, Story, splashing around at night.Their first face-to-face meeting, though underdeveloped, gives Story a shroud of mystery, like she's hiding a secret just beneath her pale pink lips. It is not so great when we hear it though, but it is good enough for a movie that has no other bullets in its chamber.
Story, as we learn, comes out of a bedtime story, one that the Cove's Choi family has conveniently memorized. The tale is told in small snippets by Young-Soon Choi and her mother to Cleveland throughout the movie. In all honesty, I would have rather heard it all in one scene and then spent the rest of the movie watching it unfold in suspense. Sadly, Shyamalan leaves suspense for what he believes to be a touching relationship between Cleveland and Story; instead, the two remain distant to the point where he will not even enter a room to talk to her and leaves her vulnerable at a crucial moment.
Saving the day is Paul Giamatti as Cleveland and Bryce Dallas Howard as Story. Giamatti lets us feel his frustration at his incredibly realistic stutter and gives us the panic of what little tension there is. The situations, though, are illogical and confusing, and the characters react as though they are taken aback by the sojourns from logic and reason. Howard, for example, jumps between being silent and timid to spouting "secrets" over a walky-talky. She does decent jobs with both, but the combination does not fit her character.
I hope to see more from Shyamalan because I have seen wonders from him. To get future works on their level, I advise he should stop depending on his limited abilities as an actor (though I enjoyed his cameos in Signs and The Village), put more focus on a single character with less outside influence, and, if he wants better reviews, not include direct insults to film critics. Heightened expectations aside, Lady in the Water, like the right-side obsessed body-builder, seems halfway done and not smart at all.
For some reason, the pool of The Cove apartment complex is shaped like an eye, with its pupil shifted to one side, the lowest point of the deep end. Every night Cleveland Heep, the caretaker of the complex, follows the pool's gaze from his isolated cabin until he notices a water nymph, Story, splashing around at night.Their first face-to-face meeting, though underdeveloped, gives Story a shroud of mystery, like she's hiding a secret just beneath her pale pink lips. It is not so great when we hear it though, but it is good enough for a movie that has no other bullets in its chamber.
Story, as we learn, comes out of a bedtime story, one that the Cove's Choi family has conveniently memorized. The tale is told in small snippets by Young-Soon Choi and her mother to Cleveland throughout the movie. In all honesty, I would have rather heard it all in one scene and then spent the rest of the movie watching it unfold in suspense. Sadly, Shyamalan leaves suspense for what he believes to be a touching relationship between Cleveland and Story; instead, the two remain distant to the point where he will not even enter a room to talk to her and leaves her vulnerable at a crucial moment.
Saving the day is Paul Giamatti as Cleveland and Bryce Dallas Howard as Story. Giamatti lets us feel his frustration at his incredibly realistic stutter and gives us the panic of what little tension there is. The situations, though, are illogical and confusing, and the characters react as though they are taken aback by the sojourns from logic and reason. Howard, for example, jumps between being silent and timid to spouting "secrets" over a walky-talky. She does decent jobs with both, but the combination does not fit her character.
I hope to see more from Shyamalan because I have seen wonders from him. To get future works on their level, I advise he should stop depending on his limited abilities as an actor (though I enjoyed his cameos in Signs and The Village), put more focus on a single character with less outside influence, and, if he wants better reviews, not include direct insults to film critics. Heightened expectations aside, Lady in the Water, like the right-side obsessed body-builder, seems halfway done and not smart at all.