Ah... nothin' like bein' alone at the end of the cage match. Maybe I'm the only critic who likes this film but it wouldn't be the first time I've parted company with my colleagues over the efforts of M. Night Shyamalan. Lady in the Water is a warts and all experience that has the power to change and, I believe, clarify our perception of how and why film is such an important part of our lives.
The best review of Lady in the Water must extend beyond the frailties of M. Night Shyamalan as a writer, perhaps even as a director, unless one is willing to dismiss his massive audience as a bunch of easily pleased rubes which I am not willing to do. And if you are then SHAME ON YOU! People are indeed sheep, and sheep are indeed dumb, but as a sheep myself I’ll point out that not all sheep are equally dumb. All of this is beside an important point. Shyamalan demonstrates an uncanny knack for subverting storytelling form in a way that the average person connects strongly with – high school creative writing class never had a better friend than this director who has systematically attacked the fairytale, the comic book, Christian based horror fiction and the classic ghost story. And he is a director who seems to actually care about the end product, the story. He’s not just milking a device for bucks. If anything Lady in the Water is proof of that.
Whatever it’s weaknesses (and this film will in no way win Shyamalan new fans) one has the idea of Lady in the Water being a more personal film than his previous efforts even if, paradoxically, it comes across as slightly less emotionally resonant. Instead it reads like a movie that picks apart Night himself, the creative process by which he comes up with ideas, writes them and films them. It is clunky, less graceful than a movie starring Bryce Dallas Howard as an otherworldly water sprite should be, and yet it is compelling - asking us to compare that process a filmmaker goes through in telling a story with the process we go through in telling our own. And it encourages us to find value in even the meanest parts of it.
Of course we only perceive the elements of the story of our lives and are mostly unable to see them as a whole. Various grids and isms only point us in the direction of general meaning, they never give us a complete view through the eye of the Storyteller. And that is precisely what works and what doesn’t work about Shyamalan’s latest. Lady in the Water features the director in a major role. Though known for doing cameos he is not known for being a very good actor and he has ingeniously written a role for himself that is as close to the real “him” as he can probably get without doing a biopic. And clearly he wants us, the audience, to connect with his process and to the hope any creative person has that their work has meant something. But Lady in the Water falls just short of that goal coming across as an amusing fairytale set in modern day that’s just a little too abstract to involve us. This is not Shyamaln’s best film but it is far from a failure. Don’t let the critics steal your chance for reflection on the themes and ideas present here nor rob you of the film’s considerable entertainment value.
Cleveland Heep is a building superintendent who finds Story, a pale mysterious young woman in the communal pool. Rescuing her he discovers she comes from another world to awaken the human race towards much needed change and that there are vicious creatures desperate to prevent that awakening and her return. Banding together with a group of oddball tenants Heep discovers the power of Story, confession, and faith.
While marketed as another Shyamalan thriller this Lady in the Water bears much more resemblance to movies like Cocoon or Batteries Not Included, revealing itself to be a gentle drama/comedy with fantasy elements. Paul Giamatti is a godsend here bringing the lonely building superintendent Cleveland Heep to life without descending into mere pathos. His character sees himself as a tragic sad sack and though Shymalan doesn’t write him deep enough it’s easy to see enough of Heep in ourselves to know that he’s far more.
When he discovers the only way to hear the rest of a old legend is to appease an old lady’s need to see him as a child Heep arranges himself on her sofa in a wide eyed series of pillow fluffing expectation filled movements that only Giamatti could pull off. When chased by a shadowy horror and discovered by a cynical tenant face down on the pavement Giamatti makes the most of the unseen pratfall's outcome and left the audience I was with in stitches.
The rest of the cast are fine in roles that never quite seem to do more than serve the screenplay. But the screenplay is so clearly a labor of love that I can’t help but want to see this film again and add it to my collection of Shymalan’s fine efforts. He’s one of the most interesting filmmakers working today. Hated The Village? How about trying to see beyond the twist ending to the real horror of that story - the sacrificing of humanity for the sake of society? Bored by Unbreakable? I say rarely has a superhero film ever seemed as human and urgent. Jaded by The Sixth Sense? Where are you on your own journey towards transcendence?
Shymalan’s point is that story can change us if we let it. We are constructed to be inspired by it, to be found and to surrender to the truths it contains, to spread that truth so that all may share in it. It’s a high goal, and one that doesn’t entirely work here. But it makes Lady in the Water the most interesting film I’ve seen this summer.