Film Reviews

Lady in the Water

• Rating:
• Director: M. Night Shyamalan.
• Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffery Wright, Bob Balaban.
• Details: US / 110mins (12A).

When caretaker Cleveland Heep (Giamatti) discovers a mermaid (Dallas Howard) splashing around in his apartment block's swimming pool, he's not entirely sure what he should do with her - although the fact that he immediately takes her at her word and accepts that she's a mythical creature doesn't augur well for M. Night Shyamalan's (The Sixth Sense, Signs) latest outing. And so it proves: while Shyamalan has made a name for himself as the guy who can deliver a big twist in a spooky psychological horror, here he seems intent on pushing the audience's credulity to the very limit by inventing twist after implausible twist, the net effect of which is to bore the audience to tears. It doesn't help that Shyamalan spends so much effort on inventing twists that he leaves very little time to develop his characters; while Giamatti is believable as the heartbroken caretaker, the ostensibly alien mermaid simply comes across as a particularly wet fish out of water, and not in the way you might think she's supposed to do. Those of you who think movie reviewers are a step up (or down, for that matter) from pond life on the evolutionary ladder will be delighted to see a pompous film critic get his gory comeuppance, but even the most dedicated M. Night Shyamalan devotee will be hard pressed to find enough to entertain them here.

Review by Gavin Burke