"Lady in the Water" is being touted as a change of pace for M. Night Shyamalan, who has spent the years following his breakthrough success "The Sixth Sense" trying to make another film with the same twist-ending impact, with notably less success.
`LADY IN THE WATER` IS A REFRESHING TALE
According to the writer-director, "Lady" has its roots in a bedtime story Shyamalan invented for his children, and it is, accordingly, more gentle and whimsical than his previous pictures. Yet it is also distinctively Shyamalan, being about a sad man disconnected from his family, who has to put his faith in the supernatural in order to fulfill his destiny -- and to stave off the scary monsters forever lurking outside.
It is also Shyamalan's most naked film, in that the story is about the story. In exploring how stories and myths are constructed, "Lady in the Water" could be a storytelling or screenwriting seminar, with the teacher always reminding us that rules are there to be broken. Lest anyone should fail to get the point, one of its characters is a would-be novelist, played by Shyamalan himself, who isn't sure he has anything to say, while another is a snooty film critic who knows everything that's going to happen before it does -- until he doesn't.
Ironically, Shyamalan's strong point as a filmmaker has never been story; it's in evoking a mood and atmosphere that makes it possible for us to believe in the possibility of being visited by ghosts, superheroes, alien visitors or, in this case, a fairy. Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), the forever-frowning, stuttering superintendent of the Philadelphia apartment complex the Cove, finds the mysterious, pale creature (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the bottom, or more specifically, beneath the bottom, of the apartment pool.
Her nakedness covered by one of Cleveland's old shirts and her eyes focused on some faraway place, she eventually reveals that her name is Story, and that she is a "narf," sent to Earth to fulfill an unexplained mission. But now she is trapped, prevented from leaving by something she calls a scrunt. When this creature too allows itself to be seen -- and felt -- Cleveland begins to believe Story is not a deluded nut case, and that the allusions she makes may have some meaning. This hunch is verified when his use of the word narf evokes a long-ago memory from one of his tenants, club girl/college student Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung), who attaches it to a fable once told by her Korean grandmother.
As silly as the talk of narfs and scrunts and stranded nymphs may sound, Cleveland is able to involve the other residents of the Cove, including the writer and his sister (Sarita Choudhury); the critic (Bob Balaban); a recluse (Bill Irwin) who does nothing but watch war documentaries on the History Channel; a crossword puzzle addict (Jeffrey Wright) and his young son; a bodybuilding enthusiast (Freddy Rodriguez); a gentle New-Ager (Mary Beth Hurt), and a group of guys who hang out in one of the apartments smoking, speculating and philosophizing. Like Cleveland, they are all outsiders. And all, it turns out, have preordained roles to play in the Story that will give meaning to their lives.
If this all sounds a little too programmed and precious, that's because it is. And anyone who has read Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" or "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" -- or even spent too much time with "Stars Wars" or "The Lord of the Rings" -- may find this "Lady" not just overly familiar but juvenile. Yet it is also beautifully composed and elemental, not to mention funny, a great relief following the resolutely straight-faced "The Village." Shyamalan would seem less interested in exposing the machinery of fabulist fiction than he does in getting to its true function: to make us dream and contemplate things larger than ourselves, as well as to connect to the best of ourselves and those around us.
What Shyamalan is selling here is sincerity, which, expressed in a film like "Lady in the Water" will inevitably strike some people as fake and gooey.
"Lady" is not likely to convert critics who believe Shyamalan is only a one-trick pony. Those willing to risk a dip in this pool, on the other hand, may be refreshed, if not reborn.
