Movie Review: Lady in the Water

I know it has been a while since I have reviewed anything. So I said to myself "we must review it precious, we must!"

The Good

So much to choose from. I suppose I will start with Paul Giamatti.

Dude kicks ass in this movie. He plays a man who has hit bottom. Even so, his character is still helping others. I cant think of a lot of actors who can look so... normal. He did an excellent job at seeming like a caring, messed up (emotionally) guy. He found greatness at the end, but only by letting go of everything he had been holding in.

Even though this is a children's story, it resonates on many different levels. It...

touches on the theme that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things

displays that regardless of one's personal rut, a reawakening can turn things around

treads upon the theme of belief

illustrates the idea of letting go to become whole

alludes strongly that everyone is connected

shows that annoying movie critic get his ass chewed off

All good things. :)

Next we have Bryce Dallas Howard. Im not really down with the name. But she did an excellent job portraying her character in this quirky nymph out of water story. Get that double meaning? I amuse myself.
Just get an eyeful of that girl. In the words of Bob Barker, "I don't want a piece, I want the whole thing!".









Despite the pacing, the characters are interesting enough that I enjoyed following them through the movie. Like the movie critic guy, what an effete bastard. I love it.














Or the guy who only works out one side of his body. Who thinks up this stuff? After I stopped laughing I totally dug it.

I also love the fact that this movie is deeply rooted in reality. The fact that the Scrunt couldnt be seen unless it wanted to. Or by those chosen to see it, helped reinforce that this was a real world fairy tale. The old lady and her daughter were hilarious too.




The Bad

The pacing was a wee bit slow, but like i said, the characters and the story were good enough that this didnt kill the movie. It was mixed up enough to keep me quite interested.

This kid comes off as a smartass little puke and that pisses me off. I did not believe him in this role. In fact I havent seen him play any role that I liked. Jeffrey Wright (the guy who played his dad) on the other hand, was fricken awesome. I think it was a disservice to pair him with this kid. I didnt feel the empathy between father and son.

The monkeys at the end.. why didnt they kill the buff guy? Continuity error or am I missing something?

I'll leave the part of about M. Night casting himself as the visionary that has a revolutionary message for the world alone. The media already beat him to death over it far more eloquently than I could.

I dont want to ruin the plot, you should watch this movie. GO WATCH IT NOW! So I will go right to...

The Rating
This movie gets a solid 9 out of 10. For those of you who dont like it, I think you just didnt get it. There are so many different thematic threads in this movie that you could watch it multiple times and not catch all of them. It was well acted, excellently directed. Dogs with grassy fur, chicks who dont wear pants, badass monkeys, giant eagles, spiritual rejuvination, pool parties, what's not to like? Well done M. Night Shyamalan!