I'm not sure what could have saved "Lady in the Water" from itself, short of M.Night having a stroke and seeing the light. It's a visually stunning, charming film that drowns under the weight of a terribly inconsequential plot and an ego that needs to make grand sweeping points. It was not lost on me that the not-so-hidden agenda of the film is to make fun of the audience and our Hollywood expectations. The film starts with Paul Giamatti smashing a "hairy thing" with a broom, sharply jabbing the screen (seen from our perspective). It goes on to add a film critic to be ridiculed and finally killed in a demeaning manner. To be honest, alone, this part was a chuckle, but with Night casting himself as a writer whose important work will only be understood long after his death and enough exposition to fill the next Star Wars trilogy, everything gets obnoxious fast. The final scene is beautiful, yes. But it's also lame. Even as I understand the point was to make the audience walk out shaking their heads to prove M.Night right "yes, we've lost our innocence", he could have done something far more altruistic and made a film that made us believe in faery tales again, without the cloy message and self referential bullspit. A real crying shame.
Review of Lady in the Water
