Lady in the Water

So I've been thinking about this movie since Woman and I saw it a week and a half ago.

At first, the opening with its chalk drawings was intriguing as a mythology of narfs. But as it wrapped up and changed to the live-action movie, I felt the mythology wasn't as deep as it should be. It was definitely a kids' story.

The movie, however, was not a kids' story. It had only a few frightening moments; that wasn't the reason it wasn't a kids' story. The reason was that the rest of the film was all adult-themed. The theme(s) intrigued me. I feel like M. Night Shyamalan and I may be one in our quest for a meaningful life and the pursuit of sharing our art with the masses. I liked how Cleveland had such a vivid past and was such a product of that one event in his life that he couldn't let himself become the man he was still destined to become. That theme rings true for me. I've known so many people who don't follow their passions/dreams/goals because of fear or because they feel life event are holding them back, when really it's themselves that block their path to fulfillment.

One of the things the critics have complained about is Shyamalan's giant role in the film as the author whose theories will change the course of the world some day. I totally agree with the critics here. I think casting himself as this character is shameless and narcissistic. Bad enough he's one of the main characters, but then to make himself pivotal to the future of the world...that's going too far.

Another thing the critics dislike is the way Shyamalan handles the movie critic character in the film. He gets eaten by the skrunt as he's narrating what should happen in a horror film versus a family suspense film. It's funny. I think the critics don't have a sense of humor about themselves because they've been so wrong about Shyamalan in the past.

Anyway, over all the movie was fun to see. It made me laugh quite a bit and I really liked Paul Giamatti in the lead role. But despite those things, I think the story was far too simple to carry a full length film. I felt like they added some trumped up conflicts to make the movie last long enough.

The best part of the film was the Korean student who helped Cleveland figure out the story of the narfs and skrunts. She was hilarious when she had to interact with her mother. Her character alone was worth the price of a matinee admission.