Lady in the Water

Not content to simply place himself, Hitchcock-style, into his own films, M. Night Shyamalan has finally done the thing he's been wanting to do all along, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. He's made a film entirely, embarrassingly for and about himself. Lady in the Water was invented as a bedtime story for his two daughters—and it plays that way. The movie 'œhas the baggy, meandering structure of a parental yarn invented on the fly,' and lacks the twist ending that made Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense worthwhile. Yes, this pretentious film marks his 'œofficial leap off the deep end,' said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. As director, producer, screenwriter, and actor in this movie, Shyamalan deserves the blame for an incomprehensible plot about a water nymph (a 'œnarf') who rises from an apartment building pool to urge one of its inhabitants to finish his book, a work of genius that will one day change the world. Who plays that brilliant teller of tales? You guessed it—Shyamalan himself, whose stiff performance is distracting and unintentionally funny. It's a shame the misguided auteur had to dim the shining performance of Paul Giamatti, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. It takes quite a presence to deliver lines like, 'œWhat happens when a narf gets scratched?' and retain a measure of dignity. 'œOne's heart goes out to the superb actor charged with speaking them.'

Rating: PG-13

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up