Posted: 07/27/2006

Lady in the Water

(2006)

by Sarah Scott

You can’t go into writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, “Lady in the Water,” expecting it to follow any traditional rules of plot development more sophisticated than the bedtime story the film is based on. The story makes itself up as it goes along, and evolves into more of a board game than a movie—sort of “Clue” meets “Dungeons & Dragons.”

The game is afoot when put-upon but conscientious apartment manager, Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), discovers a nubile young trespasser named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the communal pool. Story doesn’t talk much, but when she eventually reveals that she is in fact a “narf,” Cleveland assumes the role of detective Heep and starts asking people around the complex if they’ve heard of the word.

Sure enough, he strikes gold with the Choi family, lively (and rather nubile herself) Young-Soon and her mother (Cindy Cheung and June Kyoto Lu, respectively), who explain to him that narfs are sea nymphs from an eastern European folk tale. (Just how the Korean Chois are such experts on eastern European folklore is never explained.)

According to the fable, narfs resurface once in awhile to check up on us humans, and to steer us back in the right direction when we need help but might not know it. Before completing her mission, the narf must connect with several pre-determined humans who will have specific roles to play in helping her return home. Complicating matters is a pesky, dog-like monster who seeks to destroy the narf before she returns home, and who makes Cujo look like a cocker spaniel. Cleveland and Story must carry out her mission and figure out which are the humans that are needed to get her back home before they’re chewed into kibbles and bits. Shall we roll to see who goes first?

Like most children’s stories, the plot is episodic—such stories are designed that way, of course, to placate eager children in the most economic way possible, by continuously building on one story rather than coming up with whole new ones. And Shyamalan is certainly conscious of his film’s clunky narrative style—as soon as one newly-revealed part of the story wears itself out, Cleveland just hits up the Chois for more juice, and we’re onto the next chapter. While such seemingly lazy storytelling is distractedly cumbersome at first, if we have any interest in what happens next – and perhaps despite ourselves, the bizarre world of narfs and its mechanical rules become difficult to resist – we must give over to the method of delivery. (There is a scene in which Cleveland, in order to win over Mrs. Choi and thus hear the rest of the story, must impersonate a docile young child—Shyamalan’s unsubtle wink to his audience to just play along.)

The most egregious problem with the film is that Shyamalan attempts to pull it in too many different directions. It seems to owe something of itself to everything from “Harry Potter” to “Splash” to “Scream.” On top of this awkward tug-of-war are the unsettling undercurrents of Cleveland’s and Story’s relationship—for deeply personal reasons, Cleveland feels compelled to protect Story and ensure her safety, but is this compulsion motivated by paternal feelings of propriety, or by a less virtuous reaction to her tendency to fall asleep half-naked in his lap? Shyamalan seems to imply both simultaneously, and what we as an audience are meant to take from this central relationship is ultimately perplexing at best.

Despite these obstacles, the film does eventually win you over. Shyamalan successfully manages to involve his audience in the “whodunit” mystery of the story, and the ending – while not the dramatic shock of his earlier “The Sixth Sense” or, to a lesser extent, “The Village” – is satisfying and climactic enough. Giamatti is the hallmark of the film, however; once again, he turns vulnerable schlubiness into a true art form, and the performance is dazzling. Howard, for her part, once again proves that pale, quiet, and enigmatic are enough for quite a serviceable career, following her breakthrough in “The Village.” And Shyamalan, who always intrudes on his audience in unnecessary and distracting cameos, is surprisingly effective and unobtrusive in the large role he gave himself here. The weighty, atmospheric score by James Newton Howard is particularly memorable, as well—Shyamalan has latched onto Howard since they first collaborated on “Sixth Sense,” and it’s paying off in dividends.

Justly or unjustly, Shyamalan and his final-act plot twists have earned him a reputation as something of a one-trick-pony. Fans of “traditional” Shyamalan fare may be disappointed with the film’s lack of such a twist (or “paradigm shift,” as the filmmaker prefers to call it), and with its crude storytelling. But if you give over to your inner child and suspend your skepticism, “Lady in the Water” can take you back to a time when board games and bedtime stories were pretty damn exciting.

Sarah Scott is a writer living in Los Angeles.

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