Bad M. Night
It pains me to say that "Lady in the Water" is one of the worst movies ever made, and it pains me even more that it was made by M. Night Shyamalan. With the exception of that piece of crap Disney movie he made with Rosie O'Donnell early in his career, Night's other movies, in my opinion, really kick ass. Usually it takes several viewings to deconstruct the various layers of meaning he weaves into the script. But after seeing "Lady," I was left thinking, "Could anyone have made this into an actual movie that worked?" And the answer I unfortunately keep coming back to is, "It was doomed from the start."
The theme of the movie was about having faith -- that tends to be the central theme of all his movies. But during "Lady," all I could keep thinking to myself was, "Faith in what? That this is a good movie? But it's not a good movie, dammit!" The cast was this odd assemblage of flat characters that are nearly impossible to connect with. The main character's backstory is given about three lines of attention, after which the story moves along without another thought. There wasn't a single moment or allusion that made me think, "That was friggin' awesome!" It was a totally flat movie, from the beginning right through to the end, utterly devoid of any deeper meaning or message. This is a fairy tale about nothing. The mystical characters neither affect any sort of change in the human characters, nor do they convey any sort of valuable moral message. At the end, the main character says, "You saved my life." Did I miss something?
Night is my favorite director of the X-generation, and all I really hope this movie doesn't sandbag his career. One bad film is unlikely to do that, but it probably means that he'll have a conisderably shorter leash than he did on his other movies. That might actually be a good thing, though, because what this movie really needed was someone to sit down and say, "Night, you should NOT make this movie. Write something else." If he had such a hankering for a fantasy movie, why didn't he accept to direct the Harry Potter series when it was offered to him? In those books and movies, J.K. Rowling created this world that was partly borrowed and partly original. In "Lady," Night just sort of throws a bunch of crap at you and expects you to believe it. The creation of myth doesn't work that way.
If you want to see a cool, underappreciated Night movie, rent the "Village." But, sad to say, don't even bother seeing "Lady."
The theme of the movie was about having faith -- that tends to be the central theme of all his movies. But during "Lady," all I could keep thinking to myself was, "Faith in what? That this is a good movie? But it's not a good movie, dammit!" The cast was this odd assemblage of flat characters that are nearly impossible to connect with. The main character's backstory is given about three lines of attention, after which the story moves along without another thought. There wasn't a single moment or allusion that made me think, "That was friggin' awesome!" It was a totally flat movie, from the beginning right through to the end, utterly devoid of any deeper meaning or message. This is a fairy tale about nothing. The mystical characters neither affect any sort of change in the human characters, nor do they convey any sort of valuable moral message. At the end, the main character says, "You saved my life." Did I miss something?
Night is my favorite director of the X-generation, and all I really hope this movie doesn't sandbag his career. One bad film is unlikely to do that, but it probably means that he'll have a conisderably shorter leash than he did on his other movies. That might actually be a good thing, though, because what this movie really needed was someone to sit down and say, "Night, you should NOT make this movie. Write something else." If he had such a hankering for a fantasy movie, why didn't he accept to direct the Harry Potter series when it was offered to him? In those books and movies, J.K. Rowling created this world that was partly borrowed and partly original. In "Lady," Night just sort of throws a bunch of crap at you and expects you to believe it. The creation of myth doesn't work that way.
If you want to see a cool, underappreciated Night movie, rent the "Village." But, sad to say, don't even bother seeing "Lady."
posted by Pat at 12:21 AM
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