A Few Words About A few words about...™ Lady in the Water -- in HD (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Creating a culture or myth for literature or film can be at once enchanting or dangerously unwieldy.

M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, while a gorgeous HD DVD, is the latter. It fails in allowing us to believe the myth. This is not the fault of the actors. Bryce Dallas Howard in the role of the mythic water nymph is ethereally beautiful, with an almost translucent appearance, but cannot hold together the odd plotting and almost amateurish tale. Paul Giamatti also tries very hard, but cannot seem to rise above the script.

For some odd reason, Lady in the Water reminds me of an extraordinarily expensive film school production.

Lady in the Water is an interesting film, and a potential subject for rental, but not a worthy candidate to take up long term space on one's shelf.

RAH

 

[Ryan Petrich]

Which film school production does it remind you of exactly? I'm not aware of too many that have high budgets.

 

[Ron-P]

A blind HD-DVD buy for me.

 

[Radioman970]

I was hoping for something I found unintentionally funny like The Village. It's fun keeping up with this director since I already know he can knock my socks off (The Sixth Sense). But my take on what the thread starter has posted, everything else this guy does has a strong amateurish feel. It's almost like his mom helped him with Sixth Sense or something. :p

One good thing about Lady in the Water is that the promotions have told me all I need to know. I haven't been in any hurry to see it. Actually, I'm happy that The Village has finally dropped in price from about $20 to $10.

 

[Radioman970]

I think he was just trying to get you to visualize what he means. Like a film student who has a billionaire dad bankrolling his projects.

 

[Robert Crawford]

M Night needs to reevaluate where he's headed to recapture some of that spark he had earlier in his career. I've never seen this particular film, but I read enough about it that influenced me in a negative way to even give it a try. Perhaps, I'll get a chance to watch it on the dish and thus, give it a shot. By the way, I think Ron Howard's daughter is going to be a terrific actress.




Crawdaddy

 

[TravisR]

I gotta agree with RAH on almost all of his points (especially the great performances). I've enjoyed Shyamalan's work- even the much maligned The Village- but in the end, this was not a very good movie. I still look forward to the rest of Shyamalan's career because I'm sure he has some great movies in him but it isn't this one of them.

 

[dpippel]

I've heard so many negative opinions of this film that I just HAD to rent the HD-DVD to find out for myself. It'll arrive today and I'll watch it tonight, not that I'm expecting much. The best thing I've seen in the past several years that had M. Night Shayamalan's name connected to it was an episode of Robot Chicken where his puppet kept repeating "What a twist!!" over and over.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I have the BD version. The first thing that M Night should do, is to stop acting in his movies. It's terrible. Seeing him "sleep walking" on the screen just next to the professional actors was such a big contrast.

 

[Radioman970]

I hated Signs. I've got to give it another try in case I was just not in the mood, but it rubbed me the wrong way completely. My least favorite thing (besides the ending/reveal) was how Mel Gibson poured out his emotional moment to what amounted to an emotionless Mr. Spock M Night. So...I agree with you wholeheartedly.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I loved Signs so go figure.

 

[Tim Glover]

Me too. One of the best films in 2002....

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Well me too, I even liked The Village! But I didn't like Lady in the Water at all! It's a real mess.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I have this one on my Netflix queue. My curiosity is piqued, but I'm not expecting much. At least the HD DVD has a TrueHD track.

 

[ppltd]

After The Sixth Sense M. Night Shyamalan's films have taken a steady decline into the pits. This is an almost unwatchable film. Well, at least this is a day for date release of DVD's, BD and HD-DVD at the same time. That should count for something, although I do not know what.

 

[Radioman970]

so I was able to guess way too much on my first viewing. That didn't help with genuine enjoyment. But it was approaching a kind of Blair Witch isolated feel that I enjoyed a lot. And it just looked good. I'm hoping Lady isn't such a mess that people can't find some kind of enjoyment out of it. Maybe multiple viewings will help. I'd like to get Signs, the Village and Lady in a cheap DVD set somehow. I guess in time that will happen. Well, in time we'll get a set in HD. :up:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It just seems to me that M Night is totally obsessed with the twist ending (I can't help but think of the Robot Chicken sketches either). Not every film needs to have a twist at the end. I enjoyed The Village, but I think it would have been a much better film if it wasn't trying to play for a surprise ending, which incidentally I figured out within the first ten minutes of the movie.

Have not yet seen Lady In The Water... kind of interested in giving it a rental, but it's not a high priority.

 

[dpippel]

I just finished "Lady in the Water". My impression can be summed up in three words - What A Mess. Despite this movie, I swear that Paul Giamatti is one of the best actors currently working in film. Bryce Dallas Howard has "it" as well, and I hope she finds a better agent.

 

[PeterTHX]

Anyone else see the "Signs" parody in the "Scary Movie 3"?

I laughed hardest when Charlie Sheen happens upon the accident scene and the M Night lookalike calls out "hey, I'm going to need a ride home"

 

[Justin Hargis]

I LOVED Signs also.