Lady in the Water

Lady in the Water is a fairytale through and through. Sorry, no more startling plot twists - what you see is exacty what you get. The story defies logic, it's unreal, and it's absoultely otherworldly or just plain goofy. A savior of the purest intend is here to rescue humanity from utter destruction by inspiring a prophet? A guild, a guardian, a healer and a symbolist are aligned to assist her? Little do we remember it's all the stuff that fairytales and myths are made of (Joseph Campbell will have a field day with this one). Adults find it compulsory to act like one - i.e. to be rational at all time, sneering at the sight of any out-of-the-ordinary propositions and refuse to so much as comprehend anything that are ostensibly childish or freakishly quirky. It's almost like the lost of innocence is a blessing! What have become of us?!

Lady in the Water has sent sniffy critics around the world arching their eyebrows, not least because the only character who gets killed in the movie is one of the jaded, navel-gazing know-it-all colleagues of them. At one point, the audience is led to believe that the critic indelibly portrayed by Bob Balaban is the prophet-in-the-rough. Obviously, M. Night Shyamalan's cutting those stodgy, pontificating critics, who believe themselves to be the ultimate judge of cinematic beauty, down to size. The film has its share of flaws but since when nit-pick gets in the way of appreciation, since when the mere appearance of innocence makes us squint, since when we lost touch with our inner child, and since when being sarcastic and cynical the birthmarks of film critics as well as the badge everyone prides himself wearing? I know it's the cynics not the meeks who have inherited the world, but it doesn't mean we have to be one of them.

Like Hitchcock, MNS enjoys making cameos in his own movies. But this time around, he's not taking some petty little parts. By stepping into the shoes of a prophet destined to be sacrificed for the betterment of mankind (in real life, the film does amount to a career suicide and it does leave MNS's reputation in tatters which is most unfortunate and unfair. I've read somewhere that he's having trouble securing financial backing for his next movie - The Green Effect), MNS is telling us in our face: I mean what I said, don't call me corny! Lady in the Water professes his faith in the goodness of the world, his doubt about the cult of reason, and above all, his calling for the audience to hark back to their childhood when fanatsy tales are their escape and the sources of hope they can tap into. It's a story about having faith in yourself and the people around you, about how everyone is connected(six degrees of seperation, anyone?), about finding your purpose in the world, and about believing. It's a mortal crime to write off an artist who has a few misfires. The same goes with MNS (The Village really sucks!).