Synopsis

In "Lady in the Water," a story originally conceived by Shyamalan for his children, a modest building manager named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a mysterious young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) 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.

Official Review

One of the strangest major releases I’ve ever seen, M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water” is a genre-defying, form-snubbing plunge into the overly sentimental, proudly nonsensical world of bedtime stories. A tale that unfolds with the tenuous logic of a sugar-addled 5-year-old and an utter disregard for pacing, character development, and tonal consistency, this is the kind of film that demands that you leave your cynicism at the door and listen to the story with the eyes and ears of a child. And if you are willing to do this, the film can be a very rewarding experience. But given that we live in a world today where the most-anticipated movie of the summer was literally reshot to incorporate the contributions of snarky fanboys who want to hear Samuel L. Jackson say “motherfucking” as many times as possible, I don’t quite think that this tale is going to find many listeners. …Read More