I have a feeling I am going to be in the minority here when I say that M. Night Shyamalan's "Lady in the Water" is a great film. I feel this way because, as my girlfriend reminds me daily, I have the sensibility of a 5-year-old and "Lady in the Water" is a wonderful children's story full of quirky characters, magic and a story line only a child could appreciate.
Plus, any film featuring a film critic who reminds those of us in the business how incredibly arrogant we can be is always good.
Shyamalan, continuing his devotion to filming in Pennsylvania, takes us to The Cove, an apartment complex run by stuttering superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) and occupied by a host of oddball characters: a 10th-level crossword master and his son; a rock band; a guy who is only working out half of his body; and a cranky old Chinese mother. Heep finds a lady (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the complex's pool one night and rescues her. He later deduces that she is actually a "narf," a mythical creature from a bedtime story who has been sent to inspire one person to change the world. (That person just happens to be Shyamalan himself, as a struggling author). Eventually, after the inspiration has occurred, the narf must return home; but there is an evil wolf-like creature that attacks her and keeps her at The Cove. Heep gathers the tenants around him to help defend her as she makes one last attempt to be taken back to her home world. In doing so, she will profoundly effect ours.
Giamatti takes this role and runs with it, expressing himself without saying a word in ways that would take a less accomplished actor a five minute monologue to explain. The stutter he gives Heep is a little rough, but works as the film goes on.
The real surprise though is Shyamalan. He plays a much larger role in this movie than any he has before. From his performances in previous films, this should bode for the worse, but he turns in a startlingly deep, if a little self-congratulatory, performance.
The movie sounds like something you'd make up to tell the kids at bedtime, which is exactly Shyamalan created the story for. Cynical grown-ups aren't going to like it at all, because the plot jumps around and the characters are too convenient (something Shyamalan makes sure that we know that he knows). But every child is going to want to hear the one about the narf over and over for those very same reasons.
A final warning for parents: along with the funny and bizarre that they will love, the monster might scare younger children.