Lady in the Water
May 8th, 2007 by Bethany
We watched a movie called Lady in the Water (M. Night Shyamalan, which last name I never pronounce correctly because it's fun to say it wrong) this weekend and I rather liked it. I was surprised, because I expected to hate it from the trailers I'd seen–it looked like a horror film, but it was actually a fairy tale. I don't like scary movies. This movie had a Shyamalan feel to it–very deliberate and thoughtful–and none of the freak-you-out-grossness I expected it to have from the preview. Funny.
Speaking of funny, this movie had some very funny parts. Colin said that the movie got bad reviews because critics said it was too "self-serving" on Shyamalan's part. He was an important character (which I thought he played very well), and it was made for his children from a bedtime story he made up for them, and it made fun of movie critics. The joking about movie critics is the funny part I was talking about because he has a movie critic as a character in the movie who is cynical and always thinks he knows what's going to happen next in every story and in life because there's no such thing as something new. Besides Shyamalan's obvious poking fun at critics, the character played an important part in twisting the plot, so I think it was perfectly appropriate and added to the story rather than detracted from it. Other directors and storytellers star in their own films and Shyamalan wasn't even the star of this one, so I don't know what the big fuss is about. It was a neat movie. Not my favorite movie, but one I would happily watch again.
So Mr. Shyamalan out there, if you ever read this and in case you care, I liked the movie and think you should ignore those who didn't. While we're at it, Colin and I also liked Unbreakable, although I have to skip the pool scene because it's too scary and disturbing. The Sixth Sense is amazing but a little too dark for me overall.