Cast: Paul Giamatti (Cleveland Heep), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Lady - Story), Jeffrey Wright (Mr. Drury), Cindy Cheung (Young-Soon Choi), M. Night Shyamalan (Vick Ran, author, & director)
For complete info, see IMDb's Lady in the Water page.
I hadn't read the reviews, but I had looked at the ratings in Entertainment Weekly and People and saw the negative title for the CNN review. So, I wasn't expecting much, in spite of Lady in the Water being created by M. Night Shyamalan, who has done some good movies (and one that I'd argue is great).
Perhaps it's because I wasn't expecting much, but I enjoyed Lady in the Water. Sure, it was never truly scary, but I kept expecting it to be, which allowed the sprinklers to get me every time. Fortunately, it was clear the same thing happened to others in the theatre.
The way the bedtime story from long ago that had been told to one of the occupants of The Cove turned out to be real as Cleveland tried to figure out how to save Story was pretty interesting. I'm not sure it's necessary to see this one in a theatre, but it's worth renting.
I think it's easier to enjoy it if you realize that this isn't a typical M. Night Shyamalan movie. It's not truly scary, but it is suspenseful at times and pretty interesting.
I also think that if they'd made it clear that the part about Lady in the Water being a bedtime story by M. Night Shyamalan was true (and not a joke as I thought it was when I saw the first preview that ended by saying it was a bedtime story by M. Night Shyamalan), expectations of the movie would have been more in line with the movie. Realize that it really is a bedtime story (you can even buy it on Amazon), originally written for M. Night Shyamalan's kids and you'll go into the movie expecting the right thing and be able to enjoy it.
Grade: B-
Labels: 2006, Brad Pitt, Bryce Dallas Howard, fantasy, M. Night Shyamalan, movie, mystery, Paul Giamatti, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:45 PM show | 0 screams