Allow me to get a few things out of the way up front: I love M. Night Shyamalan movies. I think Signs is an amazing popcorn sci-fi suspense movie, Unbreakable may be the perfect blend of cinematic realism and superhero mythology, and The Sixth Sense is such a solid, tightly written Hollywood thriller you could teach a semester-long class on the script alone. Hell, I even dug the creepy weirdness that was The Village, in spite of its unevenness.
As for Shyamalan himself, I think he is a very talented storyteller, with a keen visual sensibility, a great sense of timing, and a knack for making movies that are both fun to watch and quite moving. I also think he has become a very insular person, and as a businessman and public figure, he thinks far too highly of himself and takes things far too personally.
I do not believe he is a one-trick-pony egomaniac, and I do not believe he is the next Alfred Hitchcock. I think he is a guy who has made some damn fine movies.
I mention these things because, for whatever reason, opinions of M. Night Shyamalan's films have gotten downright hyperbolic and opinions of the man himself seem to be clouding reviews of his new movie, Lady in the Water. Since it seems many filmgoers (or at least, many critics) can't separate their opinions of the filmmaker and his history from their opinion of Lady, and since people seem passionate and polarized on the whole Shyamalan thing, I decided to get it out of the way up front and let you, the reader, decide whether I sound like-minded enough that you will want to hear what I have to say, or disregard me on general principle and hit the "back" button on your browser.
Still here?
Good.
Lady in the Water is not as bad as you may have heard. It's just not nearly as good as it should be.
Article comments
1 - Iloz Zoc
Excellent solid review on the film. You hit the nail on the head with the literary versus visual balancing in the film.
2 - Steve C.
I'd love to think that Night hasn't lost his mind for good... but who knows. Maybe the underwhelming box office opening for LitW will mean that whoever funds his next movie will exert a little more oversight. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. The man could use a controlling influence, but on the flipside there's something endearing about his skid into psychosis.
3 - MIkel
I think that the fact that they had a scene were they savagely tore apart and killed a movie critic might be the reason that the eggocentric critics wrote bad reviews...... Shyalaman probably new that they were gonna write a bad review. I personally loved they movie and I give 100 thumbs up.
4 - joshua mrjonen
i loved this movie. i dont understand why no one likes it. every one of mns movies are art. he is bringing movies back to the foundation they were meant to be built upon. in an age where we have movies like "she's the man" or "they" there is a genious who has made movies for people to talk about. mns is a genious. more than any other in his movies. i dont care what anyone has to say.