Lady In The Water

Regular readers of this blog will know that i am something of a film fan - give me the opportunity to go to the cinema and i'll jump at it. Well, provided it's not to see an Adam Sandler film (ugh!). Anyway, this week, the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan (writer-director of "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" amongst others) was released - the name of the film (obviously) alluded to in the title of this post. I'm always interested to see his films - not because of the 'twist' ending that has become something of a hallmark (perhaps unfairly. After all, i wouldn't call the endings of 'Unbreakable' and 'Signs' as major twists personally) - but rather because i think the guy is a fantastic director - with a great eye and sense of pacing. I was also intrigued by the trailers for the movie - as they seemed to bill it more as a 'jumpy suspense' thing rather than the fantasy-style movie that i'd heard it would be. And the verdict?

I liked it. I liked it a lot. But you have to take it on it's own terms. It is a genuine attempt to tell a fantasy/fairy tale story in a modern setting - just as 'Unbreakable' was a 'real-world' comic book hero origin tale. As with his earlier films, it deals with some interesting themes in broad strokes - in this case, particularly the notion of purpose, and finding it. As I'd have expected, the film is well shot and put together - strikingly so given that it takes place in just the one location. The performances are, largely, excellent (Paul Giamatti is both funny and heartbreaking) and, I felt, the film was somewhat inspirational. So ignore the 'mixed' reviews and go and see 'Lady In The Water' - as a modern 'fairy tale' I think it works and works very well.