The Lady in the Water
Rated PG-13 for some frightening sequences.
reviewed by Steven Harrell
M. Night Shyamalan (say that 10 times fast) and I have a pretty tense relationship. Sure, I think he’s a pretty smart filmmaker who always makes interesting choices and cares deeply about his craft. But more importantly, I haven’t been able to go to the bathroom late at night without fear since I was 14 saw “The Sixth Sense.” “Lady in the Water” continues his tradition of quality directing and a thought-provoking screenplay. However, it skips a lot of the twisting intensity of his other films.
Story
Most filmmakers use the first 20 minutes of a movie to introduce the audience to the characters, give all the needed background information, and clue us in on where things are headed. M. Night doesn’t follow that pattern, doling out the details more gradually. For maximum enjoyment, it’s best not to know a thing about one of his films before you see it. We won’t give much away in this synopsis, but if you’d rather let M. Night guide you through “Lady in the Water” at his own pace, stop reading now. Warned? Okay.
Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is an apartment building manager who has been hearing someone splashing around in the pool after hours. One night, he actually manages to see the culprit, but she dives back into the water and doesn’t come up. While searching for the woman, he falls down, rolls into the pool, and blacks out. When he wakes up, he’s lying on his own bed and a strange woman is wearing his shirt and staring at him. Apparently she’s a creature called a “narf” from “The Blue World” and has come here on a mission to meet a writer.
Slowly, Heep learns more about Story the Narf (Bryce Dallas Howard) from a fairy tale told by one of his tenants. Narfs come to the human world to inspire and encourage people. Once they’ve completed their mission, a big eagle carries them back home. Big wolf-like creatures called “scrunts” hunt the narfs to ensure none stay in the human world. Amazingly, this is all part of a complicated back-story you’ll need to understand in order to be able to enjoy this movie.
For some unexplainable reason, Story is attacked by her scrunt without provocation and against all of the mystical rules. As the scrunt’s attacks become more vicious, Heep and the other tenants must find out what has gone wrong while they try desperately to help send Story safely home.
Verdict
At first, “Lady in the Water” seems as shallow as the kiddie pool. But if you allow yourself to be taken in, you’ll find a world of depth beneath the surface. It’s based on a bedtime story that M. Night made up for his daughters, a fact that proves both a great strength and a serious flaw.
The flaw lies in the fact that unless you take notes from the opening animation sequence that explains the basic points of the fairy tale, you’ll get lost in the film’s complicated mythology. In fact, I’m still a little confused. Scunts, narfs, tartuics, healers, protectors, a guild? It’s hard to really get the whole picture -- and keep up with a whole other plotline -- in the film’s sparse 98 minute runtime.
On the other hand, the sheer creativity of the whole thing is just plain fun (and thought-provoking). If I’d read the M. Night glossary before walking into the theater, I doubt it would have been as much fun to follow all of the complications that followed. The feeling of being in the dark also serves as a way to attach us to Giamatti’s character, who never knows more than we do. In the end, I really enjoyed watching all of the messy parts assemble themselves into a carefully constructed whole. However, I imagine many critics won’t like the glacial pace of the revelations as much as I did.
Something else critics may not like is that one of the apartment tenants is an unlikable movie critic seemingly used by Shyamalan to mock all of the writers who have given him bad reviews over the years. The critic drones on and on, arrogantly refusing to see the good in anything unconventional. Sure it’s a little self-indulgent and pretentious on Shyamalan’s part, but I couldn’t help but cheer a little every time the critic is proven wrong.
One other note. The film’s advertising is very misleading: chilling music, images of a scary creature darting in and out of the shadows, and a creepy child’s voice singing “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf. ” It really gives an audience the wrong idea of what kind of film this is. It’s not a horror movie; it’s hardly even scary. Sure, it includes some jump-in-your-seat moments, but the film is also wildly funny, sweet, and meaningful. Yes, “Lady in the Water” is a little self-indulgent, but it’s still a quality film that is beautifully constructed and pretty entertaining to watch.
The PG-13 rating comes from the intensity of the story and the frightening “scrunt” scenes. But you’ll hear very little bad language, and there’s no sexual content.
Worldview
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. REALLY. READ THE WORLDVIEW SECTION AFTER YOU’VE SEEN THE FILM.
One of the coolest things about “Lady in the Water” is that director M. Night Shyamalan is as much a part of the movie as anything that is happening on screen. He’s almost saying, “Hey, I know you think that this is about to happen, so instead I’m going to do this.” What makes this under-the-surface dialogue even more enjoyable (or frustrating, depending on your perspective) is that he also seems to know when we think he is going to pull a fast one on us and instead allows the movie to just take it’s course like any other story.
In the film, the movie critic character thinks he understands what role certain people are going to fill based on how they act in the first minutes of the story. He insists that people who are good at some things almost always wind up contributing to the plot in the same way. He assumes he knows a person’s fate based on a few random facts about them. The problem is that his “expertise” influences the rest of the tenants to fill the roles he expects of them instead of the one’s they’re truly meant to take on. If you’re totally lost right now, you obviously didn’t read the warning and haven’t seen the movie yet.
In the real world, most people have certain expectations for everyone else. When they see a kid dressed all in black with a ring in his nose, they assume he is depressed, listens to Marilyn Manson, and will probably never amount to a whole lot. When they see a sold-out Christian, they assume he is naive, fake, and doesn’t understand what it’s like to struggle with real problems or real temptation.
The thing I love most is the film’s message that expectations based on stereotypes are nothing more than one person’s opinion. Shyamalan is encouraging his viewers to surprise their own critics and make choices that defy others’ expectations. Some students I know seem to feel they aren’t “Christian enough” because they don’t carry around a Bible on top of their chemistry book and use big words when they pray. I think it’s possible to be both a sold-out follower of Jesus and a relevant, unique person with your own thoughts and opinions.
However, we are called to fill one very specific set of expectations. We can look, act, and talk very differently from each other while doing so, but all believers are intended to love God and love others the best we can with the gifts we’re given. So surprise people with your Christ-like love, change a few stereotypes of what a Christian is “supposed to be,” and enjoy being the wonderful person that God made you. Just stay away from those scrunts.
Questions:
• If you’re a fan of M. Night, which is your favorite of his films?
• Did “Lady in the Water” meet your expectations? Why or why not?
• Did your parents ever make up stories for you at bedtime? Can you remember them? Did they make any sense?
• What did you think about the movie critic character? Was M. Night just playing around, or was he making a serious statement about his dislike of the people who make a living criticizing his work?
• What sort of expectations do you feel are being placed on you? When things are expected of you, do you rise to the challenge or panic with fear?
• What expectations do you think the world has of Christians? Do we live up to them? Should we?
