“Lady in the Water” is a 2006 mystery drama directed by M. Night Shyamalan. This film currently has a 5.6 out of 10-star rating on IMDb.com, despite its $18 million initial profit.
The primary reason for the overall mutual disappointment in this movie is actually the previous masterpieces by M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable”, “Signs” and more). Many movie critics and overall fans of the director went into the theatre expecting another sci-fy masterwork full of twists and suspense, but M. Night is nothing if not versatile. Mr. Shyamalan decided to go a totally different direction with this film, and if you want to see what I mean then you’ll have to watch it yourself.
This movie stars big names such as Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright and M. Night Shyamalan himself (of course). The main premise of this film is that a man named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), the stuttering superintendent of a sorely unsatisfactory set of suites, is struggling to write a book. One day he meets a girl, a girl that lives in the pool drain of the apartment complex. Cleveland calls her Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) and later learns that she comes from the Blue World and that she has a message that will save humanity, and therefore must be protected until a giant eagle can come take her away. Cleveland is actually familiar with this task, because he vaguely remembers a parallel in it from an old oriental bedtime story.
I don’t want to say more in fear of revealing too much, but just know that this movie is still a masterpiece, it’s simply more complex in symbolism and meaning than the directors other works. Please see this movie, especially if you enjoy Shyamalan’s other major motion pictures. This film is slow and full of symbolism, but it’s definitely worth the experience and it even explains its own symbolism, all you have to do is pay attention.