by Alex Bentley

It doesn’t have one shocking moment, but rather a series of events that lead to a satisfying and endearing conclusion.

Lady in the Water

A modest building manager named Cleveland Heep rescues a mysterious young woman from danger and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. Cleveland and his fellow tenants start to realize that they are also characters in this bedtime story. As Cleveland falls deeper and deeper in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures that reside in this fable and are determined to prevent her from returning home.

Source: Cinema Source

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The career of M. Night Shyamalan is one that is at once familiar and unique. Bursting on the scene in to both critical and commercial ($300 million+ box office) success with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan became a brand-name director almost overnight. The trouble with that notion is that Shyamalan’s brand quickly became “the twist,” as in, “Every M. Night Shyamalan movie is guaranteed to have a big twist toward the end.” While this arguably hasn’t hurt the quality of his films, shackling each of them to the expectation of the “big twist” tends to distract from other notable attributes.

So let me just say this right at the beginning: There is no big twist in his latest film, Lady in the Water. There are certainly revelations and some surprises, but no overarching incident that changes your perception about everything that came before. In fact, with Lady in the Water Shyamalan seems to be taking a direct attack at those (ahem, film critics) who might have a problem with the seeming sameness of all of his previous films. He does this by essentially telling us every twist in the story before it actually happens.

Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is a superintendent of an apartment complex called The Cove. His tenants are the usual mix of quiet and loud, young and old, and different ethnicities. There’s the bodybuilder (Freddy Rodriguez) who’s, oddly, only building the right side of his body; the film critic (Bob Balaban) who’s new to the building; the group of smoking slackers who philosophize all day instead of working; the Asian mother and daughter who show just how far apart their generations are; and Shyamalan himself as a struggling writer. Heep utilizes all these and others when a mystical "narf” (Bryce Dallas Howard) calling herself Story comes out of the pool.

He must go to each to figure out exactly what Story is and what purpose she serves (or vice versa) by her suddenly coming into their lives. Shyamalan appears to take great pleasure in defusing any criticism of his storytelling by giving the audience forewarning of the events to come. He accomplishes this goal with the mother and daughter, through whom the whole tale is effectively laid out. He also takes time to bash film critics through Balaban’s character, who spouts off about the unoriginality of modern filmmaking and how he’s such an expert that he can tell you every plot twist before it occurs. His words are then immediately applied to the action in the film. It’s a clever device, but perhaps a little too crafty.

Even the appearance of mystery is sometimes better than no mystery at all. It’s also been used before in films such as Scream, giving his critics more reason to call him unoriginal.

What Lady in the Water has going for it more than anything is strong performances. Giamatti has been criminally overlooked during awards season for years now, and he delivers a typically strong role as Heep. Howard was widely praised for her turn in The Village and she proves she’s more than just a one-hit wonder here. Jeffrey Wright has a small but essential part, while Rodriguez, Balaban and others make great impressions as well. Some may question Shyamalan casting himself in a crucial role, but he proves his doubters wrong with his low-key performance.

Lady in the Water, like the director himself, is both familiar and unique. The proclaimed “bedtime story” treads well-known ground, but does so in such a way that the process is greatly enjoyable. It has Shyamalan’s trademark chills, but roots itself more in the idea of family, whether related by blood or by happenstance of living arrangements. It doesn’t have one shocking moment, but rather a series of events that lead to a satisfying and endearing conclusion. It may not be a blockbuster, but it comes through with a much better end product than most other summer films.

Also check out Dan Gattuso's take on this film.