Lady In The Water is unique. It is a film aspiring to be a real-life fairy tale, with real people acting out the roles it entails and holding up narrative conventions and character archetypes as pivotal to the plot. The protagonist is interesting as a troubled man who, intimately familiar with his ragtag bunch of apartment dwellers, attempts to solve the mystery behind the titular character and eventually becomes their leader. All this is masterfully portrayed by Paul Giamatti.
However, the film fails in its goal of evoking Willing Suspension Of Disbelief in the viewers, and at times even seems to be pleading for it. A bedtime story is supposedly central to the plot, yet arbitrary conditions keep being added to it to suit the main plot's contrivances. The plot itself writhes and twists uncontrollably, throwing a bunch of random red herrings at the audience while resolving just as randomly. The situations are too hokey to be believable. For example, a boy almost reliably seeing messages in cereal boxes? The film nonetheless desperately wants you to believe the contrived setup as characters Anviliciously speak of how much they want to simply believe like a child.
In the end, Lady In The Water is an attempt at originality that failed, merely looking ridiculous and self-indulgent. Regardless, you can still see shining glimpses of magic on occasion, and even if you don't, there's still the Snark Bait.
An ambitious film marred by contrived execution and vanity
Lady In The Water is unique. It is a film aspiring to be a real-life fairy tale, with real people acting out the roles it entails and holding up narrative conventions and character archetypes as pivotal to the plot. The protagonist is interesting as a troubled man who, intimately familiar with his ragtag bunch of apartment dwellers, attempts to solve the mystery behind the titular character and eventually becomes their leader. All this is masterfully portrayed by Paul Giamatti.
However, the film fails in its goal of evoking Willing Suspension Of Disbelief in the viewers, and at times even seems to be pleading for it. A bedtime story is supposedly central to the plot, yet arbitrary conditions keep being added to it to suit the main plot's contrivances. The plot itself writhes and twists uncontrollably, throwing a bunch of random red herrings at the audience while resolving just as randomly. The situations are too hokey to be believable. For example, a boy almost reliably seeing messages in cereal boxes? The film nonetheless desperately wants you to believe the contrived setup as characters Anviliciously speak of how much they want to simply believe like a child.
A Snark Bait point of the movie is the presence of Mr. Farber, the Straw Critic that thinks no originality is left in the world, gets blamed for supposedly misleading the protagonist, and dies a violent death while incorrectly assessing the plot situation. Sadly, if he was used as an actual character rather than a Take That Critics, he might have improved the story with his analytical Genre Savvy nature. As it stands, he's merely the funniest character in the overwrought story. Another mocking point lies in M. Night Shyamalan casting himself as a visionary that will die for his writing in his time, but will inspire a future leader and thus change in the world. Incidentally, the film itself is really about Shyamalan himself. Besides the obvious metaphor, it's no coincidence that Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, a key component of his movies, is what this one in particular literally asks out of the audience.
In the end, Lady In The Water is an attempt at originality that failed, merely looking ridiculous and self-indulgent. Regardless, you can still see shining glimpses of magic on occasion, and even if you don't, there's still the Snark Bait.