LADY IN THE WATER

US, 2006, 110 minutes, Colour.
Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung, M. Night Shyamalan, Frederick Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Jared Harris, Tovah Feldshuh.
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

If you are not into fairy tales, a warning. If you find you cannot suspend your disbelief in a world of water sprites, called Narfs, and wolfish monsters, called Scrunts, who pursue Narfs who come into the land world to help humans be better, then you might find it impossible to accept this ‘bedtime tale’ of the lady in the water.

On the other hand, we live in a Tolkein- Lewis world, so why not accept an invitation to believe? This fairy tale shows M Night Shyamalan’s mixed cultural background: Hindu with Catholic education. His tale is oriental. He links it to Korean storytelling, so it is a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar. He also peoples his plot with Americans, black, white and Hispanic, Jewish, Korean and Indian.

Shyamalan has been in critics’ guns ever since he won plaudits for The Sixth Sense. Nothing he has done since, they say, has been any good: too pretentious, too twee… Be that as it may, he still spins an interesting yarn and sometimes punctuates what might be too po-faced by some offhand putdowns and some jokes. The best in this one is worth seeing as Bob Balaban as an arrogant film critic finds himself trapped in a corridor with a scrunt and gives an analysis of how this works in horror films. Shyamalan is serious but can laugh at himself too. However, he does give himself the key role as the author whose book will contain wisdom that will change the world – but who will be martyred for his beliefs. (The latter seems to be being fulfilled by the critics’ hostile reaction.)

Bryce Dallas Howard is the ethereal sprite but the focus is on a very sympathetic Paul Giamatti as an apartment super who rescues the sprite and enlists all the multinational folk in the building to find their true selves and perform a ritual to save the sprite. The Korean myth demands an Interpreter, a Guardian and a Healer as well as a Guild to help the narf return. They group at first misinterpret their roles but finally accept who they are and their gifts and the superintendent (who has a tragic background) can come to terms with his grief. This might be too much for a severe rational audience.

Well, that may sound too much of a sweet thing but, for the willing, allowing for a couple of banal bits with Shyamalan attempting to link the mystical with the everyday mundane (the boy Interpreter reading the breakfast serial packets is definitely a bit much), it works nicely enough, intended as it is to be a bedtime story for Shyamalans’ children.

1. Expectations from the previous films of the director? Suspense? Mystery? Expectations fulfilled or not?

2. The story as a bedtime story for the director’s children, the fairy story, the fantasy? Asian storytelling? Transferred to the west? The mystical aspects? The mystical in the ordinary? - the touches of the banal, especially Joey and his interpreting the packets of the breakfast cereals?

3. The prologue, the explanation about the water people, the story, humanity, hope for humanity? The people on the land? The sketches during the credits?

4. The Philadelphia setting, the apartments, the interiors of the apartment block, the pool, the forest behind the building? The musical score?

5. The audience introduced to the fairytale aspects? Young Soon and her interpreting her mother’s story? The mother’s fears? Young Soon and her casual attitude, continually translating, communicating, the build-up of the story, Cleveland and his phone calls to her to find out more?

6. The audience willing to suspend disbelief in the realism, the fairy tale, the mysticism, Story’s presence, the Scrants and their pursuing of the Narf?

7. The focus on Cleveland, a sympathetic hero, laidback and quiet? As superintendent, the detail of his work? The introduction to the various characters in the apartment block through him, the introduction to Mr Farber, his arrival, the writer, his snapping? The group smoking, talking, philosophers? The opening with the superintendent destroying the creature, the parents and the sisters being afraid? Mrs Bell and her love for pets, capacity for healing? Mr Leeds and his isolation, quiet? The old couple – with the man forever in the bathroom? Reggie and his muscle-building (on one side)? Mr Durie, his love of puzzles, his intelligent son? Anna, her looking after her brother, Vic as a writer, their Indian background? Young Soon and her mother? A cosmopolitan group in the apartment block? Cleveland and his work, being alone, his back-story about the murder of his wife and children? His being a doctor? His withdrawing from life, trying to cope?

8. Somebody swimming in the pool at night, Cleveland and his search, his falling into the water, his being saved by Story? His taking her to his apartment, being very proper, her dependence on him?

9. Story as a Narf, ethereal, her mission, not knowing the detail, secrecy and her not being able to talk about her mission? Her hopes? Encouraging a writer to change the world? The Scrunts and their pursuing, their appearance, like a dog, a wolf, monstrous, the scientist trying to understand? Being able to immerse themselves in the grass? Story and her fear? Her need for water, under the shower? Her capacity for prophesying? Interpreting? The eagle who would come at a specific time to take her back to her world?

10. Cleveland, his going to visit all the people in the apartment block, trying to find out whether they were writers or not? His own journals and Story reading them?

11. Story, her personality, her refuge? Going into action?

12. The story and the need for an interpreter, a guard, a healer? A guild? Cleveland and his going to Mr Farber, Mr Farber’s reputation as a critic, his selfishness, his presumption in making an interpretation? The irony that he was completely wrong? Cleveland and his choosing people, trying to persuade them to take on their roles? Their willingness to do so?

13. His making the mistake, the presence of the Scrunt? The failure, Story’s collapse, her injuries? Her being in a coma?

14. The discovery that Joey was the interpreter, the reinterpretation of what was to happen? The discussion group not being the guild? Mrs Bell not being the healer? The transition, Joey and his interpretation, the various sisters as the guild, Anna and her being one of the sisters? Young Soon? Reggie emerging as the protector? Cleveland as the healer?

15. The mistakes, the change, Cleveland and his leading the ritual, expressing his energies, the outpouring of grief, his confession about his life? His being healed?

16. Reggie as the guardian and protector, confronting the Scrunt? The other creatures emerging to confront the Scrunt, overcoming it and taking it away?

17. The comic touches introduced at times to lighten what might be pretentious? Anna and her wry comments? The comedy with Mr Farber? Mr Farber, his interpretation of the horror scene, his explaining film genres and conventions, the monster behind him, the minor character on the side – and his being devoured?

18. The personalities of the various people in the apartments: Mrs Bell and her kindness, the couple in the room and the wife getting her husband out of the toilet, apologising for his bad breath etc? The Korean mother and her daughter? Young Soon and her studies, reading, lending Cleveland books? Reggie and his muscle-building, Mr Durie and his puzzles and writing?

19. The importance of Vic, being the writer, his being affected by Story, writing his book, her prophecy that it would influence people and change the world? Her prophecy about his death? That his sister would have seven children and he would see two of them?

20. The success of the mission, Story returning to her world? The effect of change in people’s lives? Cleveland healed?

21. Audience accepting this as a bedtime story, a fantasy – and delighting in it?