Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.
A crash landing leaves Kitai Raige and his father Cypher stranded on Earth, a millennium after events forced humanity's escape. With Cypher injured, Kitai must embark on a perilous journey to signal for help.
Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.
Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
Stars:
James McAvoy,
Anya Taylor-Joy,
Haley Lu Richardson
Cleveland Heep, a stuttering apartment superintendent, encounters a girl named Story swimming in the complex's pool. He soon learns that she comes from the Blue World, and has a message for mankind. Will he be able to help her complete her mission?Written by
JRF
The character of the film critic Harry Farber is named after the late critic, painter, and writer Manny Farber (who unfortunately passed away two years after this film's theatrical release), who was often described as "iconoclastic." See more »
Goofs
During a couple scenes, a hefty wind sound effect plays as the pool and the surrounding trees and bushes are shown. Neither the bushes nor the trees are blown by the wind. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Cleveland Heep:
[narrating]
Once, man and those in the water were linked. They inspired us. They spoke of the future. Man listened and it became real. But man does not listen very well. Man's need to own everything led him deeper into land. The magic world of the ones that live in the ocean, and the world of men, separated. Through the centuries their world, and all the inhabitants of it stopped trying. The world of man become more violent. War upon war played out, as there were no guides to listen...
[...] See more »
Crazy Credits
After the movie has ended, and all of the credits have scrolled, there appears the following dedication from M. Night Shyamalan: "To my daughters, I'll tell you this story one more time. But then go to bed." See more »
To start off with, I am a pretty strong believer in the idea that the preformed opinions you have going into a movie greatly influence your afterthoughts. I've gone into many good movies and come out a bit disappointed afterwords simply because I expected more, and come out of a number of others happy that the mediocrity they achieved was still better than the garbage I expected. I don't think I had heard a single good thing about Lady in the Water, my friends all made fun of the trailers, the few that saw it said it was terrible, and the expectations on IMDb weren't very good either. I saw it tonight almost by chance, picking it out from a list of what I believed were all going to be disappointing or at best average films.
Before the film was over I had already decided to comment here on IMDb, something I've never bothered to do before. Usually I feel that those movies worth the time already have enough good reviews for them, but skimming through those for Lady in the Water I find myself disagreeing with even the positive remarks.
After those two perhaps pointless paragraphs, I would basically describe the movie as: a delightful storytelling experience, simple yet elegant. The best comparison in my mind to another recent film would probably be Pan's Labyrinth. The people who expected another characteristic Shyamalan twist and the people who expected nothing of the sort were both wrong, he retains his ability to foreshadow without his usual and at this point perhaps even overplayed shocking surprise, instead using it to steer the movie in such a way that every advancement in the plot makes sense without being easily predictable.
As I said at the beginning, going into a movie with preformed opinions can alter the after-impression. I would perhaps normally rate this movie a 7, but I'm so happy that I watched it despite all the bad things I had heard during its release that I'm giving it an 8 anyways. Go out and give it a try, even if its not your cup of tea its better than most other recently released rentals.
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To start off with, I am a pretty strong believer in the idea that the preformed opinions you have going into a movie greatly influence your afterthoughts. I've gone into many good movies and come out a bit disappointed afterwords simply because I expected more, and come out of a number of others happy that the mediocrity they achieved was still better than the garbage I expected. I don't think I had heard a single good thing about Lady in the Water, my friends all made fun of the trailers, the few that saw it said it was terrible, and the expectations on IMDb weren't very good either. I saw it tonight almost by chance, picking it out from a list of what I believed were all going to be disappointing or at best average films.
Before the film was over I had already decided to comment here on IMDb, something I've never bothered to do before. Usually I feel that those movies worth the time already have enough good reviews for them, but skimming through those for Lady in the Water I find myself disagreeing with even the positive remarks.
After those two perhaps pointless paragraphs, I would basically describe the movie as: a delightful storytelling experience, simple yet elegant. The best comparison in my mind to another recent film would probably be Pan's Labyrinth. The people who expected another characteristic Shyamalan twist and the people who expected nothing of the sort were both wrong, he retains his ability to foreshadow without his usual and at this point perhaps even overplayed shocking surprise, instead using it to steer the movie in such a way that every advancement in the plot makes sense without being easily predictable.
As I said at the beginning, going into a movie with preformed opinions can alter the after-impression. I would perhaps normally rate this movie a 7, but I'm so happy that I watched it despite all the bad things I had heard during its release that I'm giving it an 8 anyways. Go out and give it a try, even if its not your cup of tea its better than most other recently released rentals.