cinemabon
07-23-2006, 01:41 PM
Lady in the water – a film by M. Night Shyamalan
As much as Hitchcock was dubbed the Master of Suspense, so M. Night Shyamalan must be dubbed the Master of Dramatic Irony. In the past five films, beginning with “The Sixth Sense,” he has brought to the screen a series of stories so unique and so special that I believe he will form a new kind of genre, one that bridges fantasy with fantastic. “Lady in the Water” is no different. Unfortunately, the PR people from Warner Brothers have again given us a very different impression from the trailers, that this is a horror film. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a Grimm Fairy Tale, whose plot twists and explanations never end.
Shyamalan stated that the idea for this film came from a story he made up to tell his children. Oh to have been in that bedroom and have your father doing all the characters! From the very opening of the film, he makes no bones about declaring this story a fable rooted in the subconscious mind. It is there we must travel, to the little boy or girl that get frightened by the dark, afraid of what’s out there. Yet in the light of day, we see that nothing is really there, only our fear. The lady, however, is the tangible bridge between fantasy and our real world. She then becomes the connecting force that brings our plot and our characters together.
The director employs a clever use of revealing characters by using the apartment complex as a motive for introducing them. Just as in “Rear Window” or Fellini’s “Roma” we gradually are introduced to characters at random that will later come into play when the climactic resolution to the plot takes place. Each character is a caricature of some idyllic person with special traits or abilities we only gets hints of… a man sits in a room full of books, a woman attracts butterflies, a group of women are collectively frightened of a spider, a man cleverly solves crossword puzzles, another develops his strength, but in only one arm, and a group of displaced young men sit around all day and discuss random topics, to name but a few. Then we have our authority figure, a film critic, which the director pokes fun at his expense. He is the distraction in this piece and the comic relief from the dramatic tension.
Paul Giamatti is a dream in this film. What do I mean by that? Just that. He seems to come from a dream, as if he is there and real in one scene, and then not there in the next, a changed man. This dual nature has a purpose which, being a M. Night Shyamalan film, one does not reveal. Suffice to say that while the director makes his usual appearance as one of the characters, almost to the detriment of the film, it is Giamatti’s performance that will most certainly garner him a nomination. In a long dramatic moment at the end, Giamatti brings the film its emotional payoff for the audience, and lifts this little fairy out of the mundane.
As much as Hitchcock was dubbed the Master of Suspense, so M. Night Shyamalan must be dubbed the Master of Dramatic Irony. In the past five films, beginning with “The Sixth Sense,” he has brought to the screen a series of stories so unique and so special that I believe he will form a new kind of genre, one that bridges fantasy with fantastic. “Lady in the Water” is no different. Unfortunately, the PR people from Warner Brothers have again given us a very different impression from the trailers, that this is a horror film. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a Grimm Fairy Tale, whose plot twists and explanations never end.
Shyamalan stated that the idea for this film came from a story he made up to tell his children. Oh to have been in that bedroom and have your father doing all the characters! From the very opening of the film, he makes no bones about declaring this story a fable rooted in the subconscious mind. It is there we must travel, to the little boy or girl that get frightened by the dark, afraid of what’s out there. Yet in the light of day, we see that nothing is really there, only our fear. The lady, however, is the tangible bridge between fantasy and our real world. She then becomes the connecting force that brings our plot and our characters together.
The director employs a clever use of revealing characters by using the apartment complex as a motive for introducing them. Just as in “Rear Window” or Fellini’s “Roma” we gradually are introduced to characters at random that will later come into play when the climactic resolution to the plot takes place. Each character is a caricature of some idyllic person with special traits or abilities we only gets hints of… a man sits in a room full of books, a woman attracts butterflies, a group of women are collectively frightened of a spider, a man cleverly solves crossword puzzles, another develops his strength, but in only one arm, and a group of displaced young men sit around all day and discuss random topics, to name but a few. Then we have our authority figure, a film critic, which the director pokes fun at his expense. He is the distraction in this piece and the comic relief from the dramatic tension.
Paul Giamatti is a dream in this film. What do I mean by that? Just that. He seems to come from a dream, as if he is there and real in one scene, and then not there in the next, a changed man. This dual nature has a purpose which, being a M. Night Shyamalan film, one does not reveal. Suffice to say that while the director makes his usual appearance as one of the characters, almost to the detriment of the film, it is Giamatti’s performance that will most certainly garner him a nomination. In a long dramatic moment at the end, Giamatti brings the film its emotional payoff for the audience, and lifts this little fairy out of the mundane.