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Lady in the Water (2006)
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Reviews Counted:204
Fresh:49
Rotten:155
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: A far-fetched story with little suspense and unconvincing scenarios, Lady In The Water feels contrived, pretentious, and rather silly.
Theatrical Release:Jul 21, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $42,219,433
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, THE VILLAGE) continues his mission to revive the ancient art of storytelling--which he has diagnosed as a dying art--melding aspects of the fantastic with the... M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, THE VILLAGE) continues his mission to revive the ancient art of storytelling--which he has diagnosed as a dying art--melding aspects of the fantastic with the mundane, and bringing to life a mythology of his own concoction. Paul Giamatti (SIDEWAYS) is Cleveland Heep, the depressed caretaker of an apartment complex in suburban Philadelphia called the Cove--a location from which the film virtually never strays. He tends the homes of a host of loveable eccentrics, including Jeffrey Wright (SYRIANA) as a single dad, Sarita Choudhury (SHE HATE ME) and the director himself as brother-and-sister roommates, Bob Balaban as a cynical film critic, and Cindy Cheung as a college girl Cleveland befriends. When Cleveland is pulled from the pool by a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard, THE VILLAGE) after a nasty bump on the head, he quickly discovers her true identity as a narf, one of an ancient race of water beings whose attempts at communication with humans have long ago ceased. As Cleveland attempts to return her to her world, uncovering the intricacies of the story from which she emerged and protecting her from the beasts that seek to thwart her, she helps him and many of the other residents find their true purpose in life, reaffirming the meaning it holds for them. Though the tale borders on overpopulation with many thinly drawn characters, and Shyamalan's own role is overtly reflective of the ego he is so often accused of, the tale manages to stimulate the imagination nonetheless. It achieves this by invoking universally affecting elements of myth and magic, and mesmerizing viewers with stunning photography by Wong Kar-Wai (CHUNGKING EXPRESS) regular Christopher Doyle. [More]
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Sarita Choudhury, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Jared Harris, Mary Beth Hurt, M. Night Shyamalan
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan
Composer: James Newton Howard
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Lady in the Water
Peevishly defensive, intransigently personal and serenely indifferent to critical (and audience) reaction
... to put it bluntly, badly paced and completely trivial, not to mention utterly juvenile.
This could have made a decent movie but the mythology comes so thick and fast that it mixes to a slurry as you watch.
What is most annoying about "Lady" is that no one ever considers the possibility that nothing magical is actually occurring.The film starts out silly and just gets sillier.
While I love where Night's head and heart are at, I think he tried to communicate them in a way that was clumsy, cumbersome, lacking in suspense and menace, and frankly, unexciting.
Ignore the critics on this movie. Yeah, I am one. Which means I'm telling you to ignore me, too.
The film is a mess, a ramshackle affair. Its silliness cannot sustain itself.
We get it. We just don't want it. Because this Lady is the Showgirls of fantasy films.
High on talk-heavy exposition and low on actual scares and thrills . . .
A return to storytelling in the first order, "Lady in the Water" is highly recommended.
Once the filmmaker spells everything out for us in the first fifteen or twenty minutes, the rest of the plot simply unfolds in a jumbled series of incomprehensible events.
Lady in the Water exposes Hollywood’s master of suspense as a wet noodle.
Latest News for Lady in the Water
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Retired rapper and underwear model Mark Wahlberg's cinematic hot streak looks set to continue at least into next year: According to Variety, the "Shooter" and... More...
February 27, 2007:
2006 Razzie Awards Announced; "Basic Instinct 2" Leads the Pack
With the arrival of the Oscars comes the stench of the raspberries. The Razzie Awards, of course, which claims to "honor" the very worst of the past year's films ...... More...
January 23, 2007:
Razzie Nominations Announced!
The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation has issued its annual press release announcing the latest batch of Razzie nominees. In an ever-more-crowded field of bad scripts, bad... More...
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