"i thought it was gonna be great!" ~ smock

oops. i guess i forgot to mention to mamaT that smockdaddy and i were so eager to see lady in the water, we went to the midnight showing last thursday. ehem. i sorta forgot about it probably because i sorta forgot about THE FILM! ugh.

i really expected this to be a great film. so great that it would be memorable. i mean, who doesn't love a scary bedtime story? who doesn't love bryce howard? and i love m. night shyamalan. i really do! but...

it had great potential. in fact, a lot of the movie has very good scenes. and funny! oh, i laughed out loud through the whole picture. but isn't this a scary thriller? okay, so it was great comic relief for some pretty tense moments. paul giamatti was flawless. totally believable and sorta lovable. but, bryce didn't do much talking. she sorta just lazed around half nekkid, looking nymphish and translucent. the asian family was hysterical. i'm surprized there hasn't been some sort of asian student uprising against possible stereotyping.

because of a carefully constructed ending, i left the theater feeling pretty high. yeah, that was pretty good! the problem was it was a short-lived high. the problem was that taken as a whole, the overall effect of the movie was pretty, well, it kills me to admit it, but it was sorta blah. the problem? too many characters. waaaaaaaay too many. as a result, they had to be pretty cookie-cutter to be quickly understood. but that's the problem, they were so obvious that they were tedious to watch. good grief, here's the one arm shmo again. they were so unspectacular, they were ultimately unmemorable.

the movie is promoted as a bedtime story. unfortunately it plays like one -- one that dad is making up as he goes after one too many nightcaps. ...and uh, then the guy goes to see the, uh, the asian lady again. yeah, that's it. and then he uh...

to add insult to injury, poor shyamalan made the grave mistake of casting himself as the "vessel" (a Christ-like figure) which is only going to add fuel to the fire since the critics all think he's an arrogant one-note hack. i happen to disagree with his critics, i just wish he'd quit giving them ammo.

to be fair, i'll probably end up owning this movie on dvd. i have to in order to round out my shyamalan collection. which means i'll end up watching it again. i'll let you know if it gets any better.