Lady in the Water (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, After Earth)
	Actors: Paul Giamatti (Hangover 2, John dies at the End), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village), Jeffrey Wright
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 26.08.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A girl (Howard) emerges from the swimming pool of an apartment building, and the caretaker (Giamatti) will slowly discover her real nature and help her go back to her world.
Review: Seven years after the huge hit of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan was less and less sucessful and Lady in the Water didn't work very well. I understand one could get tired of the recurrent way of filming typical to Shyamalan: slow development, scarce music, people speaking in whispers, out of focus or out of frame. In Lady in the Water he is creating a Fantasy world that is original and in which the characters don't react like normal people would. It is interesting that it works on the viewer and I cannot critisize the unrealistic tone, but this distance prevents us from getting fully involved. We just watch from outside the story unfold, the unbelievable deductions and chain of events leading to the ending. Note that the mythology of the Water People in this movie reminds a lot of what Guillermo del Toro created in Pan's Labyrinth or in Hellboy 2. Other side comment: it is nice to see Paul Giamatti in a leading role for a change.
Rating: 5 /10