Lady in the Water

Plot synopsis:
Maintenance man Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) tries to keep up with the needs of his many tenants. He comes to realize someone is swimming in the pool after 7 p.m., which is not allowed. The pool cleaner also brings to his attention that there seem to be globs of some sort of hair in the pools filter that have accumulated in just one day. One night, when he is very tired, he hears splashing in the pool and thinks that at last he will catch the mystery swimmer. But when he goes to the pool, there is no one there, not even footprints. As he walks around the pool, he hears someone splashing in the water at that very moment. He thinks all he has to do is wait, and they will surface soon enough. He picks up a brush and walks around the pool, takes a bad step, falls, hits his head and rolls into the pool.In the next scene we find Heep laying on his own couch, and a nude young woman is sitting across from him. There is water on the floor. He asks if she brought him here, but she only nods that she did. He gives her a shirt to wear. She clings to him, saying that she is too scared to go outside. So there he sits, with a young woman in his lap clinging to him who then falls asleep. He is clearly uncomfortable and tries to wake her. He decides he should take her outside for some fresh air, and then he will walk her home. Once outside, however, he is confronted with a growling creature which sends them both screaming back into his house.Heep needs to know who she is and what the creature is. We learn that her name is Story and that there is a creature hunting her. She is somehow prohibited from telling him who she is or what is happening, but she does tell him that she is a Narf. Heep begins asking his tenants if they have ever heard of a character called a Narf. Upon asking a young Asian student named Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung), she says she has heard of a Narf as part of a bedtime story that was told long ago to her mother, but she doesn't remember much about the story.Heep continues doing his repairs, and we are introduced to many of the tenants. Between tasks, Heep tries to catch Young-Soon when she is with her grandmother, so he can ask more questions about the story. Though she has no idea why he is asking all these questions, she is happy to do what she can for this oddly curious man. Her grandmother, however, is suspicious as to why a grown man is so interested in a bedtime story.Frustrated at only getting bits and pieces of the story here and there, he arranges to be invited into the apartment of Young-Soon and her grandmother. Young-Soon tells him to try and act more like a curious child than a man, and it will help to bring out the grandmother's softer side so she will tell him more about the story of Story. After wiggling, eating cookies and dribbling milk down his face, the grandmother is amused and tells him the story.Meanwhile, Story is walking through his apartment, marveling at various objects. She notices a different-looking book and takes it down and reads it. The book is actually a journal, one that Heep wrote following the tragic loss of his family. When Heep discovers her reading the book, he asks her not to tell anyone of his past; no one there knows the story or that he used to be a doctor. He also needs to check with Story that what he has learned so far is accurate. Though Story cannot actually say, she makes a sign when he makes a correct statement.It seems Story is a Narf, here to motivate a great writer to complete his work that will have a tremendous positive effect on the future, at which point a giant eagle will come and take her home. But there is a creature called a Scrunt who will try to kill her before she can complete her task. There are many people who live in the apartment comple, besides the writer, who will unknowingly play different parts in helping Story. Heep believes himself to be her "guardian", the one who can protect her from the Scrunt. In a scene that starts out suspenseful but becomes rather light, Heep tries to face down and battle the Scrunt, being coached by Story via walkie talkie, but it soon becomes apparent that he is not the guardian when the Scrunt attacks him. The attack is interrupted by an arrogant movie critic just in the nick of time.But now Heep has an idea of what he needs to help Story get home. He must cast the roles needed to complete the task from the diverse people that live in the apartment complex. It is such a complex undertaking that he decides to consult the latest addition to the complex, the arrogant movie critic, to help him root out some of the characters described to him. Heep finally concocts a plan, but it is misguided. When it fails, the Scrunt seizes hold of Story and tries to drag her away, but Heep manages to grab hold of her. It is now apparent they have the wrong people for the roles, and they need to rethink them fast.The pivotal character to find is the "symbolist", who can "read" the situation, giving a much better description of the characters needed and what they all must do. At last, most of the correct people are found, all but the guardian. They all encircle her hoping to protect her long enough for the eagle to arrive. But the Scrunt is patient and wily and finds a way to get close to her unseen.Finally, the guardian appears and stares the Scrunt down. We hear the eagle and Heep says goodbye to Story. He realizes she has saved him from hiding himself away, and then she is gone.

Tags: fantasy, storytelling, stupid

Review:
It's got some great scares but overall it will be enjoyed more if you know ahead of time your not going to be sitting on the edge of your seat.The theme of "finding your purpose" definitely is poignant in this day and age, I love all the self reflexive humor as far as story structure goes too.SFX were decent, not awe inspiring but good for what was required.
The reason why our ancient ancestors sat around fires and told them, and their ability to inspire and save souls.There isn't anything truly new about it (it has roots in the classic fairy tales and epic poems of antiquity), other than the fact that it dares to be a great film made in the mondern era in spite of being littered with elements of the now despised classical story (which apparently isn't good enough for modern film makers anymore).The thing about these classic stories and the one that Shaymalan is attempting to tell is that they have a purpose, and strive to inspire society and humanity as a whole.
They lead people to do great things, and make us all feel better in the end, where most modern 'stories' feel more like egotistical attempts of "artists" to make themselves feel great and leave us in awe of their great greatness.Christopher Doyle lends some excellent shots to this film, which some how manage to make a scene of an every day loser frigthenedly warding off a were-wolf type monster with a pool skimmer seem exceptionally epic.
They, ironically, claim that he was being arrogant, completing unable to fathom that their own presumptions about why he cast himself in that role could in fact be a good deal more arrogant...I'll have to admit that I've been the jaded film critic before, but one I came out of this one I remembered why I've always loved stories, and why they don't' always have to be new and fit into some silly sense of "reality"..
Not all movies are going to be liked by everyone, but given the chance Lady in the Water will find its following and make them feel a little bit better after seeing it..
To start off with, I actually liked this movie, and at first I couldn't understand why some many people hated, but upon reflection i can see what some people reacted to so harshly.One thing I liked about the film is the simple story, or more accurately, the atmosphere.
M. Night has always been better at creating a mood than fleshing out a story, but the premise of Lady in the Water works for me: It about people reacting to a fairy tale happening in real life.
Picture a blonde version of The Black Crows with even less talent ripping through and f*(^king up a version of Dylan's "Maggie's farm".Those few things aside, the rest of the cast was great, I thought the story was simple and decent enough, the "film critic" part with Bob Balaban was funny, but M.
Although most of them are one- dimensional, they are no less than endearing in their own way, like those in Cocoon or Batteries Not Included.I love the superb acting by the main leads of Paul Giamatti, who's fast becoming one of my favourite character actors, and in here, provided his character Cleveland Heep with much emotional baggage, pain and that almost natural stammer when nervous, and Bryce Dallas Howard, her Lady in the Water, name Story, is so beautiful, yet so enchantingly vulnerable.
There's another cheeky reference too at romances in the rain, which I thought perhaps cinematographer Doyle would have found it amusing given his work on Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love and 2046 (citing these 2 as I've recently watched the former).But those aside, thank you M Night, for sharing with us a wonderful bedtime story, which I think will be repeated at bedtime to many children around the world.
When I got to see Lady in the Water, I gave him a chance and I said to myself: "How bad can it be?"The story, based on a bedtime story written by Shyamalan, was quite interesting, but kind of short for a two hour film.
The whole movie takes place in an apartment complex so there aren't many sets, the visual effects are very few and look kind of cheap and the film doesn't have any stars to say that they asked for a big salary.
And yet, in true Shyamalan fashion, the movie commands viewer respect in spite of its flaws.Shyamalan credits the movie's plot to a bedtime story he created to entertain his children, but instead of conveying a simple story, the tale unfolds as a muddled new age fable that never really goes anywhere or accomplishes anything.The movie's greatest strength is the casting of Paul Giamatti as Cleveland Heep, the stuttering schlep caretaker of a Philadelphia apartment complex known as The Cove.
Giamatti's everyman quality makes it easy for the viewer to quickly get sucked into the story, which involves Heep's discovery of a mysterious woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) one night in the complex's pool.
Watching the film doesn't help as Shyamalan never bothers to explain why the Scrunts are out to kill his heroine, much less the grand importance of her mission.In the decade that's passed since Shymalan burst onto the scene with his brilliant The Sixth Sense, the director has cultivated an equally proportioned number of fans and detractors.
The whole experience actually left me wishing for a twist that would turn the movie on its head and make me feel like everything I'd spent the last two hours watching was much more than the sum of its ambiguous parts.Still, for all its numerous flaws, The Lady in the Water is still a compelling film.
The acting as usual was very good, shyamalan is able to get the most out of his actors.There's a kind of twist in the end, which i really liked, though at first i wasn't able to interpret it but when i though for a minute or two i understood the beauty of the twist.I will surely recommend this movie to everyone because once you will watch it only then can u understand the intense or warmth of the movie..
This is so awesome." Rarely in the history of modern movies has a director's hubris gone to such lengths and taken an audience down with them.And the shameful thing too is that the little merit that came with Shyamalan's previous film, seriously flawed The Village, was in his abilities as someone who could direct well enough up to a point.
Shyamalan cooks up some incoherent mythological 'fairy tale' (originally meant for his kids, usually not a good idea) involving Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), a maintenance man at an apartment complex, one night finds a very strange, petrified girl in the pool, and soon he finds out a) her name is 'Story', and she's b) called a 'narf' based on an old tale told to him by a Chinese lady, not to mention c) she needs to leave this place before these weird moss-covered dog creatures called 'scrunts' come after her, so d) practically all of the attendees at the apartment complex will somehow play a role in her getting safely away on the talons of an eagle.So you can imagine what could be attained from this material, which is nothing.
Other usually dependable character players like Jeffrey Wright and particularly Bob Balaban also become cannon fodder for Shyamalan's own twisted dealings, with Balaban playing a movie critic who finds there are no original stories left in movies...and then has to shamelessly comment on his own demise when it's met with a scrunt.And there's Shyamalan here, too, for the first time giving himself more than just the hapless cameo role that he's done in past films.
Go see Lady in the Water because it is a remarkable film with a great story, fine acting and incredible originality..
Cleveland convinces the tenants to help and protect Story.M. Night Shyamalan is like a star with an intense bright that dies in a short time.
It's ironic, then, that this is the very thing that M Night Shyamalan - hitherto one of the most innovative and imaginative of modern day storytellers - seems to have forgotten in his latest film, "Lady in the Water," the first truly disappointing movie the young writer/director has made to date (and, no, I'm not forgetting "The Village," which I liked much more than most people did).
Unlike, say, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy or the "Star Wars" films, in which the filmmakers allow us to see and enter into the fantastical and mythological worlds they've created, in "Lady in the Water" the characters spend most of their time DESCRIBING rather than showing us the imaginary world of their story, resulting in a static, talky film that fails to engage the viewer in any truly meaningful way.The wonderful Paul Giamatti stars as Cleveland, the sweet-natured, milquetoast-y manager of a multi-storied apartment building on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
The film looks as if it were shot at two entirely different locales, and that Shyamalan was unable to meld them into anything even remotely approximating a seamless whole.And that seems to be the biggest problem with "Lady in the Water." It always feels incompletely formed and half-baked, a thing of bits and pieces rather than a wholly rounded and fully developed work of art.
Bryce Dallas Howard was fantastic in The Village and she is good as an actress, but while like Giamatti she tries her best her character is nowhere near as poignant or as interesting as that of hers in The Village.
Jeffrey Wright and Bob Babalan are wasted, and Shyamalan himself makes an appearance that feels very thrown in and at the end of the day is just a form of annoyance.Scripting-wise Lady in the Water all feels very contrived and overly-silly, the pacing becomes increasingly sluggish in the second half which further suffers from trying to do too much and the characters consist of either stereotypes(the film critic tenant, the kid who could decipher codes from cereal packets and the philosopher of future importance) or fantasy "mythological" clichés with grass-haired werewolves for scrunts and twig monkeys for the tarturic that have no depth to them.
Night Shyamalan tried to put all kinds of deeper meanings to the story and characters in it, about believing in stories and making your own and everyone and everything has a purpose in life but absolutely nothing about it works out.
M. Night Shyamalan obviously tried to make a star out of Bryce Dallas Howard, after already have cast her in his previous movie "The Village" but he instead almost single handedly ruined it, by making her character extremely boring and give her absolutely nothing interesting to do.
But many people have forgotten that this is a fairy tale, and when Night wants to be in awe of the original story, and trust him on its many twists and turns, he will make those moments very charming.
For those who can see the eternal and profound real-world significance of the political and philosophical aspects of Lucas' Star Wars saga, this film should be amply rewarding and a pleasure to watch.The story unfolds more like a fable of Aesop rather than a 'scary movie', and shows the interconnectedness of people based upon their separate and unique abilities.
I think much of the film's lack of success with audiences is due to the expectations people may have had going into this movie.
It does seem like a story he made on the fly which somehow made sense in the context of the tale.It's also a beautiful picture that puts you right in the atmosphere of the apartment complex that it hardly departs from, imaginative angles and the intriguing dialogue is something I've come to expect from his films.
Director's have egos, some have vast vanity projects, and people need to understand why thats interesting not insulting.I really do feel like watching the movie again, I would think it'd be better the second time around.
Sometimes maybe he's just the crossword-lovin' freak in Apartment 2B.Perhaps this won't be everybody's cup of green tea (now with ginseng), but you gotta give the man credit - he's still coming up with original ideas, making the movies he wants to, ignoring what his critics say, and putting it out there for the people to judge.I also like the cast of characters.
The scene where Giamatti attempts to convince a Korean woman that he's child-like is particularly hysterical.I don't want to say too much about the story elements because as in all of Shyamalan's movies, the less you know the better (though there are no huge Sixth Sense-esquire twists).
He calls it a bedtime story, and it is definitely different than his other movies in that it seems more like a children's ferrytale that actually happens in real life.
Night Shyamalan made a movie about ominous signs, so he probably should have detected one when Walt Disney Co. executives told him they couldn't understand his script for Lady in the Water.
But, as Thomson said, "...we no longer think of his characters as mere slaves of the narrative but mazes unto themselves." Thomson was merely open-minded enough to watch the movie with different eyes than he watched Shyamalan's previous films ...
This is a real sleeper of a film."Paul Giamatti is really as the hotel manager "Cleveland Heep" and Bryce Dallas Howard is believable, if you will, as "Story, the "sea nymph." As long as those two dominated the screen, the movie was great.Then - wham - just like that, it got stupid.
This is to say, Shyamalan could be a great director, if he would use someone else's script.Lady in the Water: The technical directing extolled above, is no where to be found in this movie.
I have liked all of Shaymalans movies and the trailers for Lady in the Water looked very good.
Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, a fairy tale about a mysterious young lady (Bryce Dallas Howard) who surfaces at a motel swimming pool, carrying with her the myths children grow up with about a nether world of sea nymphs, monsters who pursue them, and trolls who guard her.It's up to handyman Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) to save her from her enemies and himself from his own tragic past.
The world needs change, and this movie shows that it is in every individual's power to help make that change happen.The cast is amazing, the characters Shyamalan has created are spectacular, and the story is clever and inspiring.
you will notice right away that she was the blind girl from M.Nights other truly excellent movie "The Village".Paul Giamatti who plays the main character of Cleveland Heep also gives an award winning performance as the apartment maintenance man and Storys caretaker.
You get the idea that Shyamalan thought he was really good for thinking this stuff up, but the truth is it's been done a hundred times better before and this turns out to be his worst film yet..
Night Shyamalan; a controversial figure in contemporary cinema, who came to public attention with his third feature, the global blockbuster The Sixth Sense (1999), before turning down the likes of Harry Potter and the Batman franchise to direct strange, beautifully crafted, often earnest (to the point of invoking jeers) genre movies that express his own individual feelings on human relationships, death, fear and community.As with many of Shyamalan's previous films, Lady in the Water blends contrasting elements of comedy, drama, fantasy and the supernatural to tell the story of Cleveland Heap, a middle-aged maintenance man unable to connect with the world around him.Like Signs (2002) and The Village (2004), it's essentially a film about a character scarred by tragedy, the severity of which has left him unable to communicate (both verbally and emotionally) and barely existing behind the concrete walls of a low-rent apartment complex where he now works as caretaker and general repair man.
Night Shyamalan's attention to detail and unique vision.You cannot go into this movie expecting what you've seen in the past (as MOST will expect something like Signs or The Sixth Sense).
M. Night Shyamalan is doubtless a new thinker and has produced some original and interesting films (none of which equal the promise of his first one THE SIXTH SENSE) and LADY IN THE WATER has some very good aspects.
I have often called him the preacher who whispers but with this film i think he finally shouted all he has been trying to say with his previous films.The story of this movie is brilliant to say the least and carries a powerful and moving message that we all can learn from that each has a purpose, that everything happens for a reason, that hope is not a stupid thing to have and above all life is a wonder.I love the way Shyamalan dares us to believe in the extraordinary, it is a challenge he throws us almost like a man on a mountain shouting, come all who dare!
I want to say this because I think "Lady in the Water" is the film that people will finally realize this man is not perfect.The story revolves around a woman from another world who comes to find a writer who will be inspired to write a story.
Of course the movie is also a "screw you" to film critics who hated some of Shyamalan's other movies like the awful "The Village".
All in all, I still think that Shyamalan's other movies aren't very good, but with that said, this is one bedtime story that you will not want to miss out on..
But the negative reviews of the film seem far out of proportion with what I watched.Lady in the Water was well acted, had a decent screenplay, and told a great story.