Lady In The Water (DVD)

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Story isn't sure for whom she is looking, and Heep isn't sure how to get her home. Therefore, they enlist the support of some of the other tenants, all of them stereotyped apartment-house dwellers. Miraculously, they all believe her story, too. Say, maybe this is a comedy after all. Or, more precisely, a satiric comedy, as Shyamalan pokes fun at his own detractors through the character of an arrogant, snobby, standoffish, know-it-all movie and book critic, Harry Farber (Bob Balaban). Remember when the T-Rex attacked the attorney in "Jurassic Park," and audiences screamed "Eat the lawyer"? Same thing here. Gotta be a comedy.

Ms. Howard, so good in "The Village," spends most of her time wrapped in a towel, sitting in a shower stall. Seems a pity she's got so little to do. Shyamalan, who usually writes a cameo for himself in his movies, takes on a lead role as Vick Ran, a sociopolitical writer whom Story foretells will inspire one of the world's great future leaders. Clearly, the director sees himself as a sensitive person and gives himself a sensitive role; he does fine by it. Others in the movie include Sarita Choudhury as Anna Ran, Vick's sister; Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Dury, a single parent, good with word puzzles; Cindy Cheung as Young-Soon Choi, a sexy college student whose mother knows all about narfs; Freddy Rodriguez as Reggie, a young muscle builder who works on only one side of his body; Mary Beth Hurt as Mrs. Bell, a retired writer; Bill Irwin as Mr. Leeds, a fellow who sits and stares at his TV all day; and you get the idea.

Supposedly, "Lady in the Water" is about finding one's purpose in life (or, because it's a story of sea creatures, maybe it's one's porpoise in life). Unfortunately, it's hard to know. At one point in the film, Heep says to Story, "You have to believe that this all makes sense, somehow." He seems to be pleading with the audience to accept the movie. Not a good sign. Later, he asks, "Why isn't this working?" I dearly wanted to tell him.

Oh, and you're expecting a patented Shyamalan ending, no doubt. Well, it is not quite to be, although it is close. The ending is rather gushy and maudlin, with a load of melodrama thrown in for good measure. We know this because the director reinforces the conclusion with music swelling up to gushy, maudlin, melodramatic proportions, then receding into silence. I enjoyed the silence.

Video:
The disc presents the movie's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio at about 1.78:1 to fit comfortably across a 16x9 widescreen television. Despite its high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer, however, the image is somewhat soft and fuzzy. The colors are a tad dark, the nighttime scenes show a touch of grain, and the duskier areas look slightly muddy and admit little detail. These are not major problems, but they keep the video from entering the highest ranks of standard-definition picture quality.

Audio:
The soundtrack is reproduced via Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, which would seem pretty good on the face of it, if only it had more to do. As it turns out, the bass is spare, though deep; the dynamics are spare, though wide; the sonic impact is spare, though strong; and the surround activity is spare, though well crafted. In other words, the audio does just enough to justify its presence, but as this is a fairly quiet film, most of the sound is dialogue, where it excels.

Extras:
For a relatively short picture of modest accomplishment, Warner Bros. accord it a healthy batch of extras. Things start off with "Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story," about five minutes long, wherein Shyamalan narrates from his children's book. Next comes the main item, "Reflections of Lady in the Water," a six-part, thirty-four minute, behind-the-scenes documentary that covers the movie's script, characters, look, location, creatures, and postproduction work. After that are about two minutes of auditions; three minutes of gags; and five minutes of deleted scenes.

The supplementary items conclude with twenty-eight scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen teaser and a theatrical trailer; and English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. The keep case comes in an attractive slipcover with a holographic image on it, which may be the best part of the package.

Parting Shots:
As I got about halfway through "Lady in the Water," I couldn't help remembering Robert Rodriguez's "Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D," a story idea suggested to him by his young son that the father developed into a children's fantasy adventure. Why did I think of this film? Because "Lady in the Water" has the same making-it-up-as-you-go-along quality as "Sharkboy" did and the same rambling incoherence. The one advantage Shyamalan's picture has going for it is that it's not in 3-D.

And it might be a comedy.

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