Lady in the Water
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 1.5
Handyman Paul Giamatti finds a redhead (Bryce Dallas Howard) in the apartment complex swimming pool and she's in need of some assistance (werewolves and trembling and all that) - so using the eccentric tenants, he forms some kind of post-Dungeons & Dragons collective to "save her" ... or something. Charges of narcissism and incoherence do fit, but you can't fault Night for playing it safe - he's pushed aside his tired trademark of trick endings for a more fairy tale approach which he must have realized was a bit of a gamble. As with Vegas and Atlantic City, gambling doesn't always pay off, and the result is so preposterous and anti-climactic (it's all basically a "state of mind") and the script so schematic you can almost see the screenwriter's arrows drawn between the characters.
