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Lady in the Water is a 2006 thriller/fantasy film written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and also produced by Sam Mercer and Jose L. Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on July 21, 2006, distributed by Warner Bros. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA for some frightening sequences.
Plot Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) rescues someone he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. He discovers that she is the real-life embodiment of a character from a bedtime story, who is trying to make the journey back to her home. Fighting disbelief, he rallies his tenants to help protect his new friend from the mysterious creature that is determined to prevent her from returning to her world. Detailed plot summary After falling and knocking himself unconscious on the slippery pavement beside a Philadelphia apartment-house pool, the building manager Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) finds himself rescued by a delicate and mysterious young woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard). Cleveland informs Story that she must then return home and takes her outside (while asleep) to get some fresh night air; but suddenly Heep sees a lump moving around in the bushes. It growls, wakes Story up, and starts chasing them. Story screams all the way to the door, but they make it in time. Heep calls in a local animal control officer, who is puzzled by his description of the lurking animal: a large wolf with a coat that looks like grass. While alone in Cleveland's apartment, Story discovers his journal and his horrible secret; he was once a medical doctor but gave it up and lost his sense of purpose in life after his wife and children were murdered. While talking to a young Korean tenant, Young-Soon Choi, Cleveland asks her the meaning of "narf", a term Story uses to refer to herself. Young-Soon tells him about an old east-Asian fairy tale her grandmother told her and her mother before her about such a creature. Since it was so long ago, she forgot it completely. With the help of Young-Soon's mother and Young-Soon herself as translator, Heep finds out that narf is a term for a nymph or water-faerie. Story was sent from the "Blue World" to "awaken" a human (called the "vessel") who will help the world. He also discovers there are lupine creatures that try to kill any narf that leaves its world, called "scrunts." The creatures are strong, vicious, and smart. Furthermore, they appear to be covered with grass and can flatten themselves to hide completely from human view. In order to control these and other spirits, there are laws in this world upheld by three bloodthirsty, monkey-like creatures called "tartutic" the only things that a scrunt fears. After discovering this, Heep asks Story for the description of her human vessel so he can help find it, but Story only knows that her vessel is a writer. (See Muse) Heep asks tenants if they are writers, and he eventually finds out that Vick (Shyamalan), a young writer who lives with his sister is presently writing, but suffers from writers' block. Believing that this tenant is Story's "vessel," he arranges a meeting between the two. When he meets Story, Vick feels an "awakening" that clears his mind and allows him to complete his book. Since Story's task is accomplished, she is free to return to her home, the Blue World. As she attempts to go home that night, something goes wrong: the scrunt attacks her, breaking the rules, and badly injures her. Heep rescues her, and the two of them escape into the apartment building. Judging that taking Story back outside to his house (with the possibility of facing the scrunt once more) is not worth the risk, Heep instead takes Story upstairs to the apartment of Vick and his sister. In order to prevent the wounds from becoming poisoned, Cleveland swims under the pool and finds a medicine which Story had been given by her family. This he administers to Story's injuries. Heep questions Young-Soon's mother for more information and finds that there are humans with powers capable of helping a narf. The specific roles of the human helpers in the bedtime story are a symbolist, a guardian, a guild, and a healer. Needing to find these people to help Story, Heep consults someone he believes to be an expert on story-writing, a movie critic, Mr. Farber (Bob Balaban), who has just moved in as a tenant. Farber's snide comments on the probable casting of each role and the unoriginality of movies lead Heep to his conclusions as to the identities of the helpers. The group of men (tenants who are heavy smokers and shoot the breeze all day) that Heep thinks is the guild throws a party that the movie critic Farber believes is in his honor, with which the tenants are to be distracted while Story's friend the Great Eatlon comes for her; but things go wrong. The guild members are unable to have the band start their music on time, and they leave their posts to help a sick party guest. Vick's sister, who is watching for the scrunt with a handheld mirror, gets bumped into. Her mirror breaks, leaving her incapable of seeing the monster. This leaves Story completely vulnerable to the scrunt, who strikes when everyone is momentarily distracted by a popping balloon. Heep saves her from being dragged away by the scrunt, but Story is badly clawed. Story is now unconscious and near death from the attack of the scrunt. The helpers, identified by Heep, doubt that they are the ones meant to help Story because nothing works out right. When they ask Heep why he sought them out for their specific roles, he tells them the film critic Farber guided him, telling him what these types of people or group of people must be. The tenants question how a person could be so arrogant as to assume that he was able to accurately predict the thoughts and actions of another human being. The scrunt enters the building during the party because the guild members watching the door fail to make sure it is closed. Shortly after this, the movie critic, Farber, walks into a hallway occupied by the scrunt. He sees it and makes a speech to it to the effect that in a film like this, in which no one has died, a disliked side-character is not going to be killed: he will narrowly escape. As Farber turns to run the scrunt attacks and kills him. Heep realizes that he has not properly identified Story's helpers. The supposed symbolist realizes that his son Joey is the true symbolist. His son, in turn, identifies the real guild; seven "sisters". With the observations of Mrs. Bell, whom Heep thought was the healer, Heep comes to the realization that he is himself the healer. With the help of the true healer and guild, Story is healed and revived. They then take her out to the poolside. As they approach it, the scrunt attacks, but is held a captive by the eyes of Reggie, a strong-arm athlete now revealed as the Guardian. Urged by Cleveland, Reggie advances toward the scrunt, which backs away from him. Abruptly the Tartutic emerge from the nearby hedgerow, pounce on the scrunt, and beat it to death. The Great Eatlon successfully carries Story back to the Blue World. Before she leaves, Story foretells the writer Vick's future: his work, tentatively entitled The Cookbook, will inspire a boy, who will one day become President of the United States, who will then be able to help the world. This boy will not be able to meet Vick, who will have been killed by someone who will be angered by his book. Vick's sister will have seven children, and he, Vick, will live to see two of them. Heep refuses to hear his own future from Story. Major themes: Identity and Interconnectedness The narf, Story, as well as her helpers struggle with their roles and identities in the legend that unfolds as the film's plot. Story does not believe that she is the "Madam Narf," who will greatly inspire and help the inhabitants of the Blue World when the Great Eatlon brings her back. Cleveland Heep has a hard time believing that he is the true healer even though he used to practice medicine as a doctor, and Vick, the young writer, and his sister have a hard time believing that he will write something that will inspire a great U.S. president. The critic, Harry Farber, who glibly predicts which characters have which roles in the story, is proven wrong, and killed by the scrunt. His smug failure to seek for understanding of the situation as the others involved have done is his undoing. The film shows that each individual of the story is essential regardless of that individual's self-estimation. Each one brings about change into the world whether or not he or she is aware of it or concerned about it. Every character in this film suffered from some mental anguish, which is particularly the case with Cleveland Heep. Healing is needed for them to carry on in their world. This was illustrated by the healing of Story and the subsequent healing of all those involved. Interconnectedness is shown to be important if not vital in the film. In his fairy tale M. Night Shyamalan employed classic symbolism that is pervasive in world literature: water is used, which symbolizes purification and overwhelming power. Production The movie was originally planned for Disney. Shyamalan left the studio after production president Nina Jacobson and others became highly critical of his script, and brought it to Warner Bros. . Shyamalan, who shoots in and around his hometown of Philadelphia, established a production facility at the Jacobson Logistics warehouse site in nearby Levittown, Pennsylvania, where sets for the apartment complex and a half city block of row houses were built. Occasional footage was shot inside the overflow area of the warehouse. Most of the filming was completed after Jacobson work hours. Cast Reception Lady in the Water was critically panned around the time of its release. Variety magazine wrote a scathing advance review that appeared on July 16, 2006. Common complaints about the film were that little effort is put into getting the viewer to believe in the world, that few moments of the film could be taken seriously, and that M. Night was using the film as a form of self-indulgence (Instead of having a minor cameo like in most of his films, M. Night casts himself as a visionary whose writing changes the world, and a film critic in the movie is portrayed as stuck-up, arrogant, and lifeless). Many reviewers attacked this supposed self-indulgence: Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote of the story, "Apparently those who live in the water now roam the earth trying to make us listen, though initially it’s rather foggy as to what precisely we are supposed to hear — the crash of the waves, the songs of the sirens, the voice of God — until we realize that of course we're meant to cup our ear to an even higher power: Mr. Shyamalan." Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "Fans of actor Paul Giamatti or of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan may get something out of Lady in the Water, a fractured fairy tale about a water nymph who comes to a Philadelphia apartment house to deliver an important message. Anyone else is likely to be perplexed by the muddled mythmaking or actively astonished at the self-indulgent ego of a writer-director-producer who casts himself in the role of a visionary writer whose martyrdom will change the world." Michael Medved gave Lady in the Water one and a half stars (out of four) calling it, "... a full-out, flamboyant cinematic disaster, a work of nearly unparalleled arrogance and vapidity", adding that, "... Lady in the Water is all wet ..." Also panned was the fact it was based on a bedtime story that Shyamalan told to his children; Pete Vonder Haar for Film Threat commented: "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time." However, not all reviews were negative. Harrison Scott Key wrote in World magazine that, "The plot turns into a puzzle...and it's quite fun to watch. Ultimately, the movie has us asking one of the most important questions an audience can ask: What happens next? And that makes it a good film". Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard ... there is a good chunk of Lady in the Water that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance". One possible reason for its not being taken seriously is because it drifts toward being a comedy that parodies other mystery/thriller movies rather than being a purely serious mystery/thriller. The movie is in fact full of humor, including but not limited to deadpan and satire. Release dates Box Office In its opening weekend (21-23 July 2006), the film grossed a total of $18.2 million, placing third in the United States box office results for that weekend. It was M. Night's lowest opening for any of his five major films. Due to negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth, its second week fell sharply to $7.1 million, pushing its total to only $32.2 million. Its third weekend was no better, falling another 62.1% to $2.7 million. As of September 14, 2006, its total is $42.145 million.* With an estimated budget of $75 million* and a further $70 million* in advertise costs it is unlikely that the film will see a profit in its theatrical run. DVD Releases This movie will be released simultaneously on DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video on December 19, 2006. The extras to be included on the DVD are:- • Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story • Reflections of Lady in the Water 6-Part Documentary • Additional Scenes • Auditions • Gag Reel • Theatrical Trailer • DVD-ROM PC Weblink • English, French & Spanish subtitles Trivia Related books
Childrens book Shyamalan, who credits the development of the movie to a bedtime story he told his children about what happens in their pool at night, wrote the 72-page children's book Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story (Little, Brown, New York, ISBN 0-316-01734-5) to coincide with the movie. The book's illustrations were done by Crash McCreery. It was released on the same day as the film, on July 21, 2006. The Man Who Heard Voices The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale (Gotham Books, New York, ISBN 1-59240-213-5), by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger, recounting the making of the film, was released July 20, 2006. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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