A lot of critics felt gleeful when they saw this colossal failure known as Lady in the Water. The writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan has been known to be a little arrogant. “Except for Pixar, I have made the four most successful original movies in a row,” he once said. Shyamalan also stated that, “the idea is to always go for the thing that’s risky. I want to be courageous and original. And original means, you don’t know what ‘colour’ movie you just saw.” With Lady in the Water, Shymalan succeeds at being courageous and original…and also succeeds at making a bad film.

The idea of Lady in the Water came from a bedtime story that Shyamalan was entertaining his young daughters with. Perhaps, his tale which involves made-up creatures like Narfs, Scrunts and Eatlons would be entertaining in another medium; but a feature length film, it does not.

The main character is Cleveland (Paul Giamatti), a superintendent of an apartment building. One night, Cleveland hears splashing in the communal swimming pool. He later discovers a woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), who isn’t actually a woman but a Narf—an ancient creature who lives in the water and wisely instructs humans. Without giving away too much, Cleveland and his tenants become involved in a plot to save Story from the evil Scrunts—creatures which look like boars with grass growing on their backs.

Shymalan, again, shows excellent control with the camera. His long takes and variety of angles are on par with his hero Hitchcock. The characters are interesting; all of them having their own set of eccentricities.

However, as interesting as the characters are, they are all so far removed from reality. No one in the film questions the situations they become involved in. Skepticism doesn’t exist in Shyamalan’s world. Also, the humor that these characters are forced to evoke feel just like that—forced. Some of the jokes were minor hindrances while others just made the actors look like idiots.

One of the unique aspects of Shyamalan’s films is the slower pace. He’s the anti-Michael Bay. He uses a slower pace to build suspense. Usually. Not here. There are long stretches in this film where the pace is so slow that boredom–not suspense–sinks in.

Credit must go to Shyamalan for daring to be different. He tried to put a realistic spin on fairy tales much like how he did to comic books with Unbreakable. He simply failed.

For anyone who is intrigued with this film but don’t want to support Shyamalan’s growing ego, here’s the ending…

******SPOILER*******

Story gets saved and everyone lived happily ever after (except for the audience of this film).

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