I caught a screening of Lady in the Water last week, and while a full review will drop first thing Friday,
day-and-date with its wide release, it suffices to say that, in the
broadest terms, the movie will likely further entrench mass opinion on
M. Night Shyamalan, with a majority of mainstream filmgoers brandishing
the pitchforks and lanterns of, if not outright dismissal, then at
least eventual indifference with regards to the director’s name as a
marketing tool.

Watching Lady in the Water,
I was again struck by the thought that Shyamalan needs to take a step
back from the edge. On one level, this is surprising. I previously
thought his obdurate preoccupation with namesake twists was holding him
up, as most readily evidenced by The Village, which had at its core an interesting idea but no actual interest in exploring said though, just an irksome degree of coyness and smugness in its own masturbatory delayed gratification.

Lady in the Water,
though, just shows him indulging other different if sometimes equally
problematic instincts. Apparently based on a bedtime tale Shyamalan has
told his kids for years, the film has a less involved sleight-of-hand
than his other movies. It’s rather straightforward actually. The
narrative centers around an apartment complex superintendent (Paul
Giamatti) who comes to the aid of a mythical “narf” (think mermaid
minus the tale) named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) living beneath his
swimming pool, and then rallies a motley cross-section of residents to
help secure Story’s safe passage back to her world, past a turf-backed
creature that wants to kill her.

There will be some praise for the film rooted solely in its authorial self-assurance — something Shyamalan’s films will never lack — and rest assured that an equal amount of animus will in fact be as much about Lady in the Water‘s
marketing as a thriller as its actual dramatic content. (Warner Bros.
has cut a good trailer, but trust me, it’s not a suspenseful film, per
se.) In the end, though, Lady in the Water
is hampered by a mode of storytelling so out-of-step with mainstream
tastes that word-of-mouth is, quite frankly, going to be a bitch. More
to follow soon…