Yesterday, I saw Lady In The Water. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan. I own all his movies on DVD, including the “mockumentary” he made of himself. His stories captivate me on a level that other movies do not. His style of storytelling is absolutely brilliant to me, although he is usually mis-understood by most movie goers in my opinion.
Lady In The Water is yet another masterfully crafted tale, based on a simple idea. In his other films, such as Unbreakable, and Signs, he has taken a very basic human element and crafted them into films with a twist. He has not strayed from this with Lady In The Water. With Lady In The Water he took the basic outline of what makes a story a story, and crafted it into an actual movie. Many movie reviews fail to even see this. Yes, it’s based on a bedtime story. Yes, it seems to just be a slightly mythical “damsel in distress” picture. But I feel they are all missing the grander underlying point here. Shyamalan is making a movie about what makes a story, a story.
As always in his films, the cinematography is beautiful to behold, keeping your focus on certain aspects, but making you feel like you are in the body of the foreground blurred out character experiencing the scene as it plays out.
The performances of the actors in the film I thought were very genuine. None of them were overpowering, and they all felt like regular human beings, except maybe for the character “Reggie”, although he was a funny, and oddly quirky character.
I was very happy with this film, and it shall join my collection of DVDs once it comes out on shelves. If you like Shyamalan ’s films, definitely go see this while it’s still in the theater.