Proof that a movie with such potential could fall so hard

Rating: 2/10 (11 January 2012)

As I have said before, I am not a M Night Shyamalan detractor, I just feel saddened that somebody responsible for a masterpiece such as The Sixth Sense and a great movie like Unbreakable could fall to lows by being responsible for a movie as strange as Lady in the Water and as horrible as this. For me, Shyamalan's worst film is between this and The Last Airbender.
The Happening did have a brilliant idea, but sadly this is living proof that a great concept could fall victim to such poor execution. The only redeeming values were the score that brims with beauty and intensity and Zooey Deschannel's sympathetic performance.
Everything else however is a failure. The film doesn't look so bad actually in the scenery and effects, but because there is no life to the film I could never properly enjoy it. Plus there is some camera work annoyances that were one of many flaws for Lady in the Water, such as the focusing on nothing and half-faces, not to mention the ridiculously long keep ahead of the wind close-up.
I wish I had better news about the story, script and characters, but I can't. The script is incredibly contrived and ham-fisted especially Mark Wahlberg's lunatic conversation with a plastic pot plant which is a contender for Wahlberg's worst ever acting moment, and Shyamalan's direction is either unfocused with the uneasy mix of disaster thriller or 1970s eco-horror or over-ambitious with again the trying to cram in too much notion that eluded a vast majority of his resume after Signs.
The characters are stereotyped, with Deschannel's the only one I had any sense of care or sympathy for. The story is a mess, it may have started off intriguingly but suffered from a lack of suspense, dull pacing, the sense that the film doesn't know whether it wants to be disaster thriller or eco-horror and one of the most hysterically awful last forty minutes I have seen of any film.
Mark Wahlberg I am not a fan of, but he has been capable of some good, even great, performances namely in The Fighter and especially Boogie Nights. But he is awful in this, one minute he is dull and the other minute he is overacting embarrassingly, it is painful to watch really. In conclusion, a mess of a film and considering the potential it should have been so much more than it was. 2/10 Bethany Cox