Lady In The Water (M. Night Shyamalan, 2006)
This is one of those films where I know I'm too much of an M. Night apologist. I can spot all the things that are terrible about this film. The film critic character is just painful overt meta. There is too much exposition and not enough showing us things. It all feels a bit clunky.
Yet, I can't help but to love the idea enough to still almost want to give the film a pass. I honestly think the idea of this parallel world of beings trying to save us from ourselves, these various creatures playing different stories in this fairy tale for good or evil, the various humans who must carry out their part, all to make for the happy ending. But I ultimately end up wishing Guillermo del Toro could make the film instead.
M Night's telling just gets too twisted up in misdirections. The beauty of a fairly tale is in its simplicity. The interest to me isn't figuring out which of the dozen or so sets of people who are the relevant role, but seeing how that role actually functions or what it means for that character (what about their story makes them fit). Spoiler (I guess, this film lacks any great sense of tension) but we ultimately find out that Cleveland, the super for the apartment complex, used to be a doctor until his family was killed and he kind of dropped out of life. That he ultimately is revealed as the Healer could have a power to it. For him it would be a return to this function he played not only in the story but in the world; his effort to help others in the story would work to help him. If you could find similarly useful stories for the other roles, you would have a pretty good base. So this film acts as a bit of a disappointment but a respectable one.
One thing of note is that M. Night gives himself his biggest role yet. Some are critical of his tendency on this, but I actually think he does a good job here (as he has in his other cameos). Not to jump the gun, but I have a lot of similar sentiments of good idea gone wrong with The Happening, which will be my final entry in the M. Night marathon (for the time being). I still think it is impressive that M. Night has worked in ghost/thriller, comic book, alien, period and now fairy tale genres. The Happening is sci-fi and Airbender is martial arts. Even if his talent sometimes lets him down, his dexterity and creativity still seems pretty special.
Rating: 3/5