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Lady in the Water

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Lady in the Water
Lady in the Water theatrical poster
Directed byM. Night Shyamalan
Written byM. Night Shyamalan
Produced bySam Mercer
Jose L. Rodriguez
M. Night Shyamalan
StarringPaul Giamatti
Bryce Dallas Howard
Jeffrey Wright
Bob Balaban
M. Night Shyamalan
CinematographyChristopher Doyle
Edited byBarbara Tulliver
Music byJames Newton Howard
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
July 21, 2006
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000,000
Box office$72,785,000

Lady in the Water is a 2006 thriller/fantasy film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Plot

After falling and knocking himself unconscious on the slippery pavement beside the swimming pool of a Philadelphia apartment building, the building's caretaker Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is rescued by a delicate and mysterious young woman named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard). Cleveland later tells Story that she must return home, and takes her outside (while she is asleep) to breathe fresh night air. There, they are startled and soon terrified by a beast that is glimpsed on a nearby lawn, who pursues them to the door of Cleveland's house.

The mysterious young woman claims she is a "Narf" called Story, a character from bedtime stories, and that she is being pursued by a beast, Cleveland brings the tenants together to help Story and to get her home.

Production

The movie was originally planned for Disney, as Shyamalan's previous four films; but was rejected. Shyamalan was reportedly angry about the rejection and presented the project to Warner Bros., who agreed to make the film. The events that led to the making of the movie were featured in a book, The Man Who Heard Voices, by Michael Bamberger.[1][2][3]

Shyamalan established a production facility at the Jacobson Logistics warehouse site in nearby Levittown, Pennsylvania, where sets for the apartment complex and a half-city block of row houses were built. Occasional footage was shot inside the overflow area of the warehouse. Most of the filming was completed after playtime hours.

Music

Having already formulated ideas for the score the previous year, Howard wrote the score during the early part of 2006, and the orchestral score was recorded over a period of four days in May by the 91-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony.[4]

Cast

Actor Role
Paul Giamatti Cleveland Heep/The Healer
Bryce Dallas Howard Story
M. Night Shyamalan Vick Ran/The Vessel
Sarita Choudhury Anna Ran/Guild member
Cindy Cheung Young-Soon Choi/Guild member
June Kyoto Lu Mrs. Choi
Bob Balaban Harry Farber
Jeffrey Wright Mr. Dury
Noah Gray-Cabey Joey Dury/The Interpreter
Freddy Rodriguez Reggie/The Guardian
Bill Irwin Mr. Leeds
Mary Beth Hurt Mrs. Bell
Tovah Feldshuh Mrs. Bubchik
Tom Mardirosian Mr. Bubchik
Jared Harris Goatee Smoker
John Boyd One-Eyebrow Smoker
Ethan Cohn Glasses Smoker
Grant Monohon Emaciated Smoker
Joseph D. Reitman Long-Haired Smoker
Maricruz Hernandez Perez de la Torre Sister #1/Guild member
Carla Jimenez Perez de la Torre Sister #2/Guild member
Natasha Perez Perez de la Torre Sister #3/Guild member
Monique Curnen Perez de la Torre Sister #4/Guild member
Marilyn Torres Perez de la Torre Sister #5/Guild member

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack for The Lady in the Water was composed by James Newton Howard. The last four tracks are non-soundtrack songs from singer/songwriter Amanda Ghost, Indie rock band A Whisper in the Noise and rock 'n' roll revivalists Silvertide. Each of the four songs was originally written by Bob Dylan. Howard won the IFMCA Award for Best Film Score for Lady in the Water in 2006, as well as the awards for Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film, and Best Single Cue of 2006 for "The Great Eatlon"[5].

Track Listing

  1. "Prologue"
  2. "The Party"
  3. "Charades"
  4. "Ripples In The Pool"
  5. "The Blue World"
  6. "Giving The Kii"
  7. "Walkie Talkie"
  8. "Cereal Boxes"
  9. "Officer Jimbo"
  10. "The Healing"
  11. "The Great Eatlon"
  12. "End Titles"
  13. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" – A Whisper In The Noise
  14. "Every Grain Of Sand" - Amanda Ghost
  15. "It Ain't Me Babe" – Silvertide
  16. "Maggie's Farm" – Silvertide

Reception

Lady in the Water was critically panned around the time of its release and has an overall rating of 24% on the review conglomerate Rotten Tomatoes.[6] Of Shyamalan's role in the film, Mark Kermode said, "It's like someone pouring petrol over their heads and setting fire to themselves"[7].

Variety magazine wrote a scathing advance review that appeared on July 16, 2006. Common complaints about the film were that little effort was put into getting the viewer to believe in the world, that few moments of the film could be taken seriously, and that Shyamalan was using the film as a form of self-indulgence; instead of having a minor cameo, as in most of his films, Shyamalan cast himself as a visionary whose writing changes the world, and included a film critic — portrayed as arrogant, self-assured, and passive — who is despised by the other characters and who ultimately is violently killed. Many reviewers attacked this perceived self-indulgence: Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote of the story, "Apparently those who live in the water now roam the earth trying to make us listen, though initially it’s rather foggy as to what precisely we are supposed to hear — the crash of the waves, the songs of the sirens, the voice of God — until we realize that of course we're meant to cup our ear to an even higher power: Mr. Shyamalan"[8].

Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "Fans of actor Paul Giamatti or of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan may get something out of Lady in the Water, a fractured fairy tale about a water nymph who comes to a Philadelphia apartment house to deliver an important message. Anyone else is likely to be perplexed by the muddled mythmaking or actively astonished at the self-indulgent ego of a writer-director-producer who casts himself in the role of a visionary writer whose martyrdom will change the world"[9].

Michael Medved gave Lady in the Water one and a half stars (out of four) calling it, "... a full-out, flamboyant cinematic disaster, a work of nearly unparalleled arrogance and vapidity", adding that, "... Lady in the Water is all wet..."[10].

Also panned was the fact that the film was based on a bedtime story Shyamalan told to his children; Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat commented: "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time"; an ironic comment, considering Shyamalan's next project would be a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender.[11]

CNN's Tom Charity, among many others, has called Lady in the Water the worst film of 2006. It was listed by Variety as one of the ten "biggest (financial) losers" of 2006.[12]

Not all reviews were negative: Harrison Scott Key wrote in World magazine that, "The plot turns into a puzzle... and it's quite fun to watch. Ultimately, the movie has us asking one of the most important questions an audience can ask: What happens next? And that makes it a good film"[13]. Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard ... [t]here is a good chunk of Lady in the Water that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance"[14].

Box office

In its opening weekend (21-23 July 2006), the film grossed a total of $18.2 million, placing third in the United States box office results for that weekend. It was Shyamalan's lowest opening for any of his five major films. Due to negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth, its second week fell sharply to $7.1 million, pushing its total to only $32.2 million. Its third weekend was no better, falling another 62.1% to $2.7 million. As of September 14, 2006, its total was $42.285 million.[15] In addition, the film only made $30.5 million in the foreign box office, pulling its tally to approximately $72.785 million internationally. The movie had an estimated budget of $75 million[16] for production and a further $70 million[17] in advertising costs.

DVD releases

This movie was released simultaneously on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray from Warner Home Video on December 19, 2006.

The extras included on the DVD are:

  • Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story
  • Reflections of Lady in the Water 6-Part Documentary
  • Additional Scenes
  • Auditions
  • Gag Reel
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • DVD-ROM PC Weblink
  • English, French & Spanish subtitles
Lady in the Water, A Bedtime Story children's book

Children's book

Shyamalan, who credits the development of the movie to a bedtime story he told his children about what happens in their pool at night,[18] wrote the 72-page children's book Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story (Little, Brown, New York, ISBN 0-316-01734-5) to coincide with the movie. The book's illustrations were made by Crash McCreery. It was released on the same day as the film, on July 21, 2006.

The text of the book consists of a description of the narf, scrunt, Tartutic, and Eatlon, wherein their roles (which are identical to those in the film) are given in detail. Some details present in the book do not appear in the film: these include the description of the sensations experienced by a vessel upon its awakening and the suggestion that a narf's presence causes lawn sprinklers to activate causelessly. Contrastingly, the roles of Madame Narf, Healer, Symbolist, Guild, and Guardian are only suggested and not stated openly.

The tone of the book resembles in some respects that of Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, sharing with it an air of unnerving mystery and a similar pace.

The Man Who Heard Voices

The Man Who Heard Voices (Gotham Books, New York, ISBN 1-59240-213-5), by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger, recounting the making of the film, was released July 20, 2006.

References

  1. ^ Brian Lowry, Lady in the Water, Variety, July 16, 2006, Accessed May 10, 2008.
  2. ^ Peter Travers, Lady in the Water, Rolling Stone, July 20, 2006, Accessed May 10, 2008.
  3. ^ Sink or Swim, Entertainment Weekly, July 7, 2006, accessed May 10, 2008.
  4. ^ Goldwasser, Dan (2006-05-14). "James Newton Howard scores Lady in the Water". ScoringSessions.com. Retrieved 2009-01-01. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ IFMCA Award (2006) "Awards and Winners 2006"
  6. ^ Lady in the Water on rottentomatoes.com
  7. ^ BBC - Five Live MARK KERMODE
  8. ^ The New York Times (July 2006) "Finding Magic Somewhere Under the Pool in Lady in the Water" by Manohla Dargis
  9. ^ Film Journal International Lady in the Water, by Frank Lovece
  10. ^ Michael Medved's Eye On Entertainment - Lady In The Water Review
  11. ^ Film Threat Review
  12. ^ Variety.com - 2006: Hollywood diagnosis, Sun., Dec. 24, 2006.
  13. ^ World (Aug. 19, 2006): "A thrillertale: Middle Earth and Philadelphia collide in Lady in the Water", by Harrison Scott Key
  14. ^ The Boston Globe (July 21, 2006): "Fractured Fairy Tale", by Wesley Morris
  15. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ladyinthewater.htm
  16. ^ FOXNEWS.COM Kevin Costner Almost Got 'Lady' Lead, Wednesday, July 19, 2006
  17. ^ http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-24-2006-100392.asp
  18. ^ JoBlo.com (June 26, 2006) - "Early Lady Review!" by Mike Sampson
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