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Lady In The Water

esquire's picture

Just saw Lady In The Water this weekend. Not bad, I won't give away the storyline or anything to those of you who haven't seen it yet. It wasn't Shymalan's best work, nor his worst. But I will say this, M. Night Shymalan had his largest role in this film of all his movies that I've seen. If you've seen any of his films, you know that he always has a lengthy monologue in one single scene.

I don't mean to sound like a Star Wars dork, but I don't consider the prequels real Star Wars movies. Much like Yogurt said to Lone Starr in Spaceballs........."God willing we will all meet again in 'Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money'........I like to refer to the prequels in that sense. Mind you, Darth Maul and Count Dooku were cool characters though.

hey ladies....

It's an old trick of alfred hitchcock...a mentor of m. night's. He is about a good of an actor as Keanu Reeves in a drama...(please stick to action!!) I read once that it was an acknowledgement to alfred.

In Return of Sith (go yoda) George does make an appreance as a senator  ( I think he's purple.)

thanks for the review and comment about waiting for dvd.

Shymalan isn't the only director who puts himself in all his movies. Mel Brooks has been doing it for years. Every one of his films, he's played a small role. Smaller than a leading role, yet larger than a cameo. It could possibly have something to do with ego that these directors put themselves in their films. You never see people like Steven Speilberg or George Lucas doing it.

So far for me, Shymalan has been a real hit and miss director. He has a lot of great ideas for films, and I respect him for writing, producing and directing every project. Here's how I'd rank his films so far from best to worst....

1.) The Sixth Sense

2.) Lady in the Water

3.) The Village

4.) Signs

Haven't seen unbreakable yet so I can't rank it.........

I really dislike that he puts himself in all of his movies.  I don't think he is a particularily good actor and I think that there are certainly better people who could have played his role more effectively.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.  I am such a movie addict and I was enthralled from beginning to end (as I usually am).  I loved the concept, I loved the story and I loved how even though the premise was sort of silly and childish (the movie is actually based on a story he made up for his children) it was powerful, beautiful, compelling and I actually took it seriously and was concerned for the characters and wanted everything to work out for them.

I am a huge fan of Paul Giamatti and I loved Bryce Dallas Howard in The Village, so I was thrilled that she was in this movie as well.  All in all, while it wasn't perfect, it is still a movie I will see again and I would suggest seeing it (although renting it would suffice.  Not one of those movies you need to see in theatres).