The Lady in the Water

So, I know that this wasn't really a great movie but there were times when I was intrigued by the world that M. Night Shyamalan presented. With the ambiguous description of "a bedtime story," he's able to do just about anything without much logical justification.

Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is the handyman and general building manager for an apartment building. He lives alone in what appears to be a cottage next to the communal pool and one night, after he thinks he sees someone in pool, he knocks himself unconscious and falls into the water. He is rescued by what appears to be a young woman (Bryce Dallas Howard), but she's clearly not quite that. She comes from another world, a world forgotten by most people on Earth. By "chance," Cleveland learns more about Story's origins from a Korean tenant whose mother told her an old bedtime story about "narfs" (water nymphs, essentially) that come to this world in an effort to help ours. Cleveland is forced to piece together information about Story's world (there are wolf-like creatures called scrunts that lie in wait for narfs and attack them) and purpose (Story must find her vessel, a writer, and by meeting him, she will give him the inspiration he needs to finish his book and his thoughts will change the world). As Cleveland helps Story meet her vessel and save her from the scrunt, more people from the apartment building are brought in to serve as predestined players in the drama that unfolds.

I was entertained to some degree, but ultimately I couldn't settle on the purpose of the movie. It was an intriguing idea but it certainly wasn't marketed in a way that explains the tone to any satisfying degree. Of course, simply by virtue of the fact that it's an M. Night Shyamalan movie, viewers should be forewarned that it won't be quite all you prepare for.