Lady in the Water

M. Night Shyamalan | 2006 | 110mins | USA

For a while, I sort of believed that M. Night Shyamalan had never even come close to making a good film. I sort of enjoyed Unbreakable, but mostly because it was my "homework" to watch it for a fourth year university course, back when it came out in '00. My degree is awesome, I know.

That film was redeemed mostly because it starred my fantasy lover, Bruce Willis - but then, not even he could save The Sixth Sense. That's neither here nor there, mind you. What I really want to talk about is Lady in the Water.

Nobody told me when this film came out that the mermaid-in-a-pool premise was not actually the starting point for a lame mystery with a gimmicky shock ending and a bunch of lackluster twists and turns along the way.

If anyone at all had mentioned, even in passing, that the film was actually an endearing fantasy in which Paul Giamatti and a ragtag group of misfits find themselves in the middle of a fairytale, I probably would have seen it sooner. The heartwarming gang of apartment complex neighbours that superintendent Giamatti assembles (I think his name's actually Cleveland in the film, but whatever) try their hardest to get a water nymph back to her home before some sort of grass/wolf monster eats her. Wacky hijinx ensue! A movie critic provides laffs along the way! Much suspension of disbelief and all that required, but at the end of the day, Lady in the Water is really charming. There! I said it!