Movie Title: Lady In The Water
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (7/10)
Year: 2006
Lady In The Water official site: http://www.ladyinthewatermovie.com/
M. Night Shyamalan, I still have problem pronouncing his name especially the word Shyamalan. I think he was one good director who knows what he wants and what he have to offer. Yes, he can only offer and the option for us is to accept it or to decline it.
As years goes by, I think he is one of the director in Hollywood I sort of look up to when it comes to originality. Right, Hollywood have so much blockbuster movie, and everyone likes to watch it… seriously if I was given a chance to watch, I would rather go for movies that hit you in your heart leaving you something to think about than movies that just have “oh so famous stars” which left me feeling as if I wasted 2 hours in my life each time I walk out of the cinema.
The first ever movie I watch was Unbreakable. I think it was a brilliant movie although it was not really being promoted. Many think it was a sloppy movie. While others think it was an okay only movie. I think it hit me big and I just thought finally Hollywood movie industry finally have hope, instead of just doing remakes or reused scripts over and over again with different popular actor/actress or more CG’s thrown in.
Looking at the top 3 paragraphs, you know I don’t fall under the category of people who dislike this movie and think it was one of his worst movies. Yes, many have different interpretation than me and think it was a slow messy movie which focus on lady, wolf and monkey. If you are the type that hopes that everything in the movie must be told to the dot, I guess this is not your type of movie. If you love to have some room to imagine, assume and fill in some blanks with your own point of view, you’ll love it.
The intro of the movie tells almost 80% of what the whole movie. If you do pay full attention to the Egyptian like stick figures intro, everything else that comes after it is just to explain in a more detailed way. As many think thinks and assume it was a scary movie, it is not! It’s clearly written on the poster, and the ending of the trailer, A Bedtime Story.
The movie was set in an apartment community located in Philadelphia. Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is the apartment’s superintendent. He takes care of everything in the community. From fixing the lightbulbs, making sure no one swims after 7pm, no one smokes in the apartment and etc. Weird things has happen since the past week. They believe someone have been swimming in the pool during the night and have caused the filters to clog.
Cleveland then tries to check on the pool when he heard splashes. There is where he was saved by Story ( Bryce Dallas Howard) a Narf. Erm, Narf is more like an angel that lives in water. Right, which also means Story is the lady in the water. She is sent to this apartment to look for a writer who’s written work will be a great influence to the future generations.
Cleveland thought she was some problematic kid and was about to sent her home. Just as they left the house, some weird looking creature started following and attacking them. Cleveland soon knows that the creature was out to hunt Story down.
Upon asking around, Cleveland finally knows and believe that Story is one of the old bedtime story that has been told to kids from generations to generations. Young Soon (Cindy Cheung) is the middle person who tells Cleveland whatever he wants to know about the story as her mother can only speak Korean.
Since Story could not leave Cleveland’s house, Cleveland is set to go look around for the writer. When he does find him, it was hard for him to believe that he’s actually a writer. The writer, Vick (M. Night Shyamalan) is then brought to meet Story.
Right after her task was done and was about to leave the apartment back to her water world. She is waiting for the great big eagle to come bring her back. Following the laws and rules, the wolf like creature cannot hurt her or tries to kill her if she manages her task and is about to leave but this time things turn bad. She was hurt badly and was rested at Vick’s place.
Vick was then told about Story’s identity. As Cleveland listens deep in to the story, he soon finds out that he needs to find several people in the apartment to help bring Story back one last time. As far as it is like some RPG game, they have the healer, protector, messenger and etc.
Cleveland is set to look out for the people to bring her back. He then went and talk to Mr. Farber (Bob Balaban), a famous movie critic. He give some suggestions and clue on who to look out for. Unfortunately, they were looking at the wrong crowd.
The ending… haha I won’t wanna spoil it for you so you should see it. I just felt the whole movie with the “purpose” theme was cool enough. Not to even mention how he tells about people don’t listen and when they do, they listen wrongly. Hmmm.. I think it was just amazing.
We all know we were born to this world with a purpose, be it still finding, found or lost. Be it a small purpose, a big purpose. I also like the way he shows that what critics or someone influential says is always correct, they can be wrong too. But most often people look up to their critics like words of god and that could lead someone’s life or carrier in great danger.
I guess M. Night Shyamalan brilliantly slips in what he wants to express and say in a soft way. Not to even mention how true it is that what we say and think today, might influence the future generations. Probably.. what you say today is the quote that the next President use. Who knows? It was a great movie that still kept me thinking about the theory till now. Ah… lovely… lovely.