Based on a bedtime story Shyamalan created for his children, Lady in the Water is filled with symbolism, myths and magic. It's also filled with hope (a good thing) and more than a dash of grandiose self-importance (not a good thing).
The film revolves around a watery being -- a "narf" -- named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) who emerges from a swimming pool behind a dingy Philadelphia apartment building named the Cove. She saves the life of Cleveland Heep, the sad building superintendent with a tragedy in his past, then falls under his protection. She needs protection from "scrunts," ferocious wolf-life creatures who want to stop her from meeting a writer who will have an "awakening" upon meeting her and began work that will change the world.
A confused Cleveland seeks help from his Korean neighbor Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung) and her mother, Mrs. Choi (June Kyoko Lu), who conveniently knows all about narfs, "scrunts" and monkey-like beings known as tartutics that lurk in trees and are enemies of the scrunts. Cleveland believes all his, decides to help Story complete her mission before the "great eagle"comes to take her home to the Blue World.
Thankfully, all this comes off more gracefully than it reads, though the tale lacks the the smooth flow of The Sixth Sense or the popcorn fun of Shyamalan's Signs. And there are some elements that are numbingly self-serving -- mainly Bob Babalan as an obnoxious film critic who comes to a bad end. Shyamalan also gives himself a supporting role, rather than his usual Hitchcockian. He's a decent enough actor, but casting himself as a writer whose ideas will change the world seems more than a little egotistical (something of which Shyamalan has certainly been accused) and distracting.
As the title character, Howard, so winning and vivacious in The Village, is wasted here. Her mythical creature is given little to do but look ethereal, eye-wided, confused and occasionally scared. It's hard to accept the important role in the grand scheme of things that Shyamalan assigns her. However, the always incredible Paul Giamatti shines as Heep, despite being saddled with scenes in which he has to stutter uncontrollably. Any film with the actor is elevated by his mere presence. The other members of the supporting cast are fine, if under-used, though Freddy Rodriguez 's role as a body-builder who only exercises half his body (to grotesque effect) is too bizarre even by Shyamalan standards. Plus, there seems to be no point to the character's weird obsession, since it doesn't affect the film any more than if the bodybuilder were a CPA or a computer programmer.
Shyamalan foregoes his usual twist ending, which will disappoint some. But his plotting ties up most loose ends with an efficient and interesting ease at the end of Lady in the Water. The visuals and the music are also intriguing. In the end, the film wants to achieve a profundity that falls way short. But you've got to give kudos to Shyamalan for trying. His latest may be pretentious and sometimes tedious, but you can't accuse the filmmaker of cookie cutter filmmaking.
Lady in the Water is rated PG-13 for some frightening sequences. Running time: 110 minutes. Macsimum rating: 5 out of 10. You can check out all the films' trailers on the [url=http://www.apple.com/trailers/]QuickTime movie trailer site[/url].
