
M. Night Shayamalan's latest film is set to open in all the cinemas in the United States on July 21st but reviews are already very little generous when it comes to praising it. The story is based on a children's bedtime story that the famous director wrote for his two daughters.
Unlike 'The Sixth Sense', 'The Village', 'Unbreakable' and 'Signs', 'Lady In the Water' holds no final twist to its plot, no surprising turn of events to shock the viewer and leave him/her wondering what just happened. And, unlike the already mentioned movies, it fails to be convincing or catchy enough, too.
'Lady In the Water' is about a superintendent of The Cove building who, one night, rescues a woman named Story from the pool, only to later discover that she is not human.
She's a narf, a nymph-like being, who escaped from her water world because she was hunted by evil spirits. She must return there but can't do it on her own so, she needs help from the humans.
The movie maintains the mysterious atmosphere we are already familiarized with in any of M. Night's works but it comes off as a little forced and exaggerated. Fans of the director went to the premiere of 'Lady In the Water' and most of them are of the opinion that maybe it was meant to be a TV series, because the action is so rushed at certain moments that it becomes hard to try and keep up with it.
Also, it seems that 'Lady In the Water' tries to create a sort of water mythology while, unfortunately, lacking all the necessary elements that might have made it possible. This also happens because the run time is apparently too short to engulf all the elements that Shyamalan obviously had in mind.
The film is distributed by Warner Bros. and stars Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard.