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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Warner Bros. Pictures
Salesrank: 39553
Released: December 19, 2006 |
| Our Price: $1.99 |
| Used Price: $0.49 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.
Description of Lady in the Water (Full Screen Edition):
Or, if you prefer, I See Wet People. M. Night Shyamalan's attempt at a newfangled mythology--about a depressed apartment superintendent (Paul Giamatti) who discovers a sea-nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) who may hold the key to humanity's hopeful future--is intriguing enough to capture the imaginations of children and adults who haven't lost sight of their innocent sense of wonder. Cynics, on the other hand, will likely scoff at Shyamalan's awkward fantasy, which includes one victim--a film critic--widely interpreted as Shyamalan's revenge against reviewers who panned The Village. Shyamalan originally improvised this melancholy fantasy as a bedtime story for his children; unfortunately, it still feels mostly half-baked and ultimately ineffective due to a number of plot holes and inconsistencies that a writer as talented as Shyamalan should've been able to avoid. For those wishing to learn more about the film's troubled history, and Shyamalan's petulant split from Disney studios, The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale is an interesting read. --Jeff Shannon
Lady in the Water (Full Screen Edition) Reviews:
Short and Simple 
2009-10-29 - I love this movie.It's a creepy and kind of haunting fairytale.I stumbled upon this movie one night on HBO and from the moment it started I was hooked.A real life fairytale that isnt so sweet.You have to see this.
Lady in the Water 
2009-08-29 - A quirky film, but fun. Have to see it more than once to catch all the content.
This bedtime story comes to life 
2009-08-18 - Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is an apartment manager for The Cove. It is a tall apartment building that curves around the lima bean swimming pool. The other side is a forest. Cleveland is truly stressed out about his residents, but polite about it.
One evening, another problem develops, a mysterious woman is in the swimming pool. He only caught a glimpse of her. Unable to find her, he is wet and slips and falls. He wakes up in his room with the mysterious lady on the couch watching him. She has red hair and very fair skin. Cleveland asks where she is from. Her reply is, "The Blue World". Her name is Story (Bryce Dallas Howard).
She is scared. Later, he carries her outside to walk her home. An animal from the forest charges after them.
Ironicly, his tenant Mrs. Choi (Cindy Cheung) knows all about sea nymphs from a bedtime story. Story is looking for one man, then she is allowed to leave and go back to her world. Cleveland helps her and introduces her to Vick Ran (M. Night Shyamalan). Now that she has met her vessel, Vick, she can leave unseen except for the monster that won't let her.
Have you ever tried to find a "snipe" like Spin & Marty?Walt Disney Treasures - The Adventures of Spin & Marty - The Mickey Mouse Club
Also in the cast: Jeffrey Wright, Mary Beth Hurt.
If Paul Giamatti reminds you of Richard Dreyfuss (not in this film), well the man in apartment 13 B is Bob Balaban who was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition) (1977).
Special Features: gag Reel, deleted scenes and where the idea for "Lady in the Water" came from. Many behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Current M. Night Shyamalan:
Praying in Anger (1992)
Wide Awake (1998)
The Sixth Sense [Blu-ray] (1999)
Unbreakable [Blu-ray] (2000)
Signs (Vista Series) (2002)
The Village (Full Screen Edition) - Vista Series (2004)
Lady in the Water (Full Screen Edition) (2006)
The Happening (2008)
The Last Airbender will be released July 2. 2010.
Fairytale come to life- I love this movie!
2009-08-14 - One of the things I adore about M. Night Shyamalan (besides his name!) is his art direction. I love the way he lines up shots and I love that they remind me of one of the great masters- Mr. Hitchcock. In Shyamalan's The Lady in the Water, he goes beyond the technical aspects and attempts to bring his gift as a story teller into focus.
LITW is a fairytale come to life in a modern setting. The set does not vary from the Apartment Complex called The Cove and the action is understated. But that's okay, because LITW does not depend on the setting or even the action. No, this story hinges on the Characters. I know- a story cannot exist without characters, but it can be driven by something other than them. By far, my favorite stories are character driven.
LITW opens with a stylistically simple animated bit giving us the background into the world Shyamalan supposedly originally created as a fairytale for his child. He created a world called The Blue World- a world of water that was once very much in touch with our own world. (I know, not original, but let's give him slack. It's intentional remember?) In Shyamalan's tale, our world eventually lost the ability to "hear" or understand the creatures of The Blue World and in time, they stopped trying to communicate with us.
But. During times of war and upheaval,The Blue World sends messengers to 'awaken' us. Enter a mysterious ethereal young woman named Story (aptly played by Bryce Dallas Howard). Story is a "narf", a sea nymph, discovered by Cleveland Heep (even more aptly played by Paul Giamatti)- the manager of The Cove with a sad past. She is not allowed to talk about where she is from and though she knows why she was sent to our world, she does not know her ultimate purpose- just like every other character in this tale. As the tale unfolds we find that through helping Story accomplish her mission and get back home, everyone else will discover their own purpose for being there. (Unbeknownst to them, the group gathered at The Cove, have come together for the express purpose of aiding Story.)
The plot of the movie is the revelation of which person is intrinsic to aiding Story, what that means, and what their task is.
And here is where the intentional symbolism comes in: Every part played is a part symbolic in helping a "story" achieve its purpose of "awakening" it's hearer. Okay, the entire movie is intentional and very obvious, but this is the big underlying one I think.
In LITW, Story's mission is to come to our world and "awaken" the vessel- a human who will help the world in a troubled time. To aid her, there is a guild- a group of men or women gathered to support and give strength, there is a guardian, a symbolist and a healer. Each of these parts are also essential for any good story finding it's purpose. There is also a creature called a skrunt- a wolf like beast sent to stop Story from fulfilling her mission. Or stop her from ever doing it again. (This beast is what also brings in the trademark jump-out-of-your-skin moments that Shyamalan has become famous for. Well, the skrunt and the sprinklers!)
I can't tell you who the characters in LITW turn out to be but each element, - the guild, the guardian, the healer, and the symbolist, become known by the end of the movie. There is also one additional character called "The Movie Critic", who, rumor has it, was specifically put in to get back at the critics for poo-pooing The Village. (It's good to be creators of worlds, isn't it?)
Even more than The Village, LITW was trashed big time by film critics and, although I will concede that it's not a perfect movie- the fairytale itself seems a bit forced- I still think it's a better film then given credit. Hey, beyond character driven stories, I love character driven stories about storytelling. Throw in people finding their purpose and I'm sold. Naive and wide-eyed of me? So be it.
If you love fairy tales, watch this movie
2009-08-02 - I cried the whole way through. What a fantastic movie, can't believe I didn't watch it sooner. This is what fairy tales are about. If you want to be inspired, watch this movie.
