‘Lady in the Water’: Fairy tale fluff

(Old review. Originally published July 24, 2006, PDI-Entertainment. I’m looking forward to the filmmaker’s latest, “The Happening,” showing within the month.)

By Oliver M. Pulumbarit
Contributor

Since “The Sixth Sense,” writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has pursued his own artistic vision, creating generally profound layers in his characters’ enigma-filled realities. His ideas aren’t that original, but he gives his own spin on established mythologies, so whether they’re ghosts, aliens, and other unusual beings that defy human comprehension, he knows how to make us believe, scant information on them notwithstanding. That is still true with “Lady in the Water,” although this time, it takes us time to get reeled in because it follows a more offbeat, more fairy tale-like structure.

The story is simpler and approached with a looser sense of logic in that sense, and requires huge leaps of faith on our end. As with his other films, the lead character reels from tragedy in “Lady”, but a fateful encounter with otherworldly creatures changes his monotony forever. After apartment superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a “narf”—or sea nymph--named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) from a pursuing mythical beast, he and a few select apartment residents must band together to help fulfill her mission. By helping out through designated roles, these misfits are ultimately saving the human race as a whole, at least according to some old legends.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Shyamalan film if he didn’t insist on appearing in it. His screen time here is considerably longer and more crucial, as he plays an aspiring author destined to influence a future world leader. That’s when things get really iffy; his presence on-screen is a distraction. There are things you just can’t suspend disbelief over, like that character, and Story’s trippy claims that she’s from an undersea world (everyone takes her word for it without ever seeing her monster attacker). The voice of reason comes from a skeptical character much later in the movie, but by then it doesn’t really matter. Again, it’s like a simplified bedtime story that doesn’t bother with necessary details.

But the script is well-written in parts, particularly those involving an all-knowing, surly film critic character (Bob Balaban), who vocally points out the allusions of events and people to Cleveland and, well, to himself. Too bad the assemblage of characters here is at times disaffecting and too contrived. Among them is a kid who sees Story’s future by staring at cereal boxes (eh?), and a petulant woman who knows all (all!) the key characters and symbols of the narf legends by heart. There are many convenient plot elements that help Story—and the story!—move forward, including a timely placed deus ex machina that predictably lets the characters wriggle out of the whole mess unharmed.

It ends too abruptly, although it doesn’t spoon-feed the ceremonial fare-thee-wells anymore like it did during most of the movie. Howard’s partly amnesiac Story is just okay, but she appropriately radiates an aura of divinity, even when she’s immobile most of the time. No, we really don’t see her world, which probably would’ve spiced things up visually.

While it’s not the usual Shyamalan twist-filled crowd-pleaser, “Lady in the Water” is still about humanity and the human condition, even when they’re forced to commune with the bizarre. It isn’t that big a departure from his other fantasy-laced films, but it lacks some of the more complex puzzles and rewarding resolutions that his other, better-written films have believably presented.