5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.4 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita ChoudhuryThriller | 100% |
Supernatural | 78% |
Mystery | 65% |
Fantasy | 59% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (640 kbps)
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It will be the seeds of change.
Lady in the Water is actually something of a noteworthy film in recent Hollywood history,
but not for a particularly good reason. It's the film often credited with the confirmation of the
beginning of the
long and hard fall from the top of the Hollywood scene for Director M. Night Shyamalan, the
Eastern Pennsylvania-based director of the legendary Horror/Thriller The Sixth Sense, the
film that made the twist ending the en vogue style of the day and would quickly become
synonymous with Shyamalan as his trademark modus operandi. Following on his
success with the Bruce Willis Chiller, the director released the exemplary but admittedly
audience-splitting films Unbreakable and Signs, but something
happened along the way to 2006's Lady in the Water: The Village. Panned by
critics
and confusing Shyamalan's fan base with a picture that wasn't even close to living up to
expectations, The Village placed a dark cloud over the director's head, but considering his
past
successes, it seemed to be only a blip on the radar, a passing shower with clear and sunny skies
to follow. Even Steven Spielberg had The Lost World, but rather than
hit back with a Saving Private Ryan
as Spielberg did a year following his dinosaur misfire, Shyamalan would follow up The
Village with Lady in the Water and, soon thereafter, The Happening, two
films that only seemed to cement the demise of a director that at one point was seen as the
next Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock rolled into one.
Narf!
Lady in the Water washes up on Blu-ray with a middling 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer that's dull and drab but seemingly reflective of Shyamalan's intended tone. "Flat" and "listless" are the words of the day, the transfer lacking anything even resembling a sparkle, and the lifeless feel remains with the transfer from start to finish. Colors are hardly vibrant; even brighter shades of red, yellow, and green seen here and there offer no more than a cursory break from the drab tone that's dominant in the film. The image is sharper than its standard-definition counterpart, but fine detailing is still minimalist in presentation. Faces lack texture, backgrounds are flat, and every object in the film delivers but token detailing that's admittedly improved upon in 1080p but is hardly of note beyond. The image does retain a bit of grain, and dirt and debris anomalies are kept to a minimum. A hint of softness permeates a few scenes; blacks are fledgling but never overtly problematic; and flesh tones remain fairly stable, from the film's darker-skinned individuals to Story's deliberately ghastly pale appearance. Lady in the Water doesn't look all that great on Blu-ray, but it's not a particularly handsome film to begin with, either.
Lady in the Water splashes onto Blu-ray with only a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX soundtrack; Warner Brothers has not included a lossless or uncompressed option for this high definition release. This is a routine, front-heavy, dullard of a track that offers practically no immersion into the film from a sonic perspective while delivering a slightly harsh listen that gives little more than a perfunctory effort. The track is absent the superior clarity and precision of lossless presentations; there's little sense of space and the track lacks in pinpoint atmospherics. The bulk of the track is handled up front with only cursory back-channel support; a sprinkler system sprays water and features one of the track's most prominent rear channel effects, but doesn't deliver much more than a base sonic signature that's identifiable as a sprinkler but doesn't fool the aural senses into believing that the sprinkler is indeed at work in a live environment. On the plus side, musical reproduction is generally smooth but again lacking in clarity, while dialogue reproduction is crisp and sharp with no discernible hiccups of note. Lady in the Water's is a fairly generic soundtrack, one that easily gets the job done but doesn't strive for -- nor does it accomplish -- anything more than a bland but passable listen.
Lady in the Water brings with it a few extras of note to this Blu-ray release. 'Lady in the Water:' A Bedtime Story (480p, 5:00) features Director M. Night Shyamalan sharing some insights into the real-life bedtime story he wrote and that inspired the film. Throughout the short piece, he reads selections from it, accompanied by illustrations courtesy of Crash McCreery. Reflections of 'Lady in the Water' (480p, 34:45) makes up the bulk of the supplements; it's a six-part making-of documentary that takes viewers from the origins of the story and the subsequent motion picture all the way to post-production. Each segment -- Intro and Script (3:36), The Characters (11:43), The Look (4:54), The Location (3:12), The Creatures (3:41), and Post and Closing (7:37) -- offers plenty of raw behind-the-scenes footage and cast and crew interview snippets that go fairly in-depth into all things Lady in the Water, and while this makes for a good all-around piece, fans still might find themselves wanting for a full-length commentary track, which Shyamalan has yet to provide for any of his films. Next up is a collection of audition tapes (480p, 2:10) for various parts in the film, followed up by a gag reel (480p, 3:16) and several deleted scenes (480p, 5:01). Also included is the film's teaser (480p, 1:45) and theatrical (480p, 1:33) trailers.
Imagine if Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) or Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill) suddenly released a string of critically-panned and audience-loathed films. Unfortunately, that's what's happened to Lady in the Water Director M. Night Shyamalan, the one-time demigod-like filmmaker that seemed as sure a thing as death and taxes. Now just a decade-plus removed from his astronomical rise to success with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan is giving it one more go in an effort to salvage the respect of his once-gargantuan fan base with the already-controversial The Last Airbender. There's no denying Shyamalan's raw talent behind the camera, masterful storytelling ability, and visionary filmmaking techniques. Here's hoping that Airbender returns him to prominence; Hollywood's just not the same without Shyamalan at the top of his game. As for Lady in the Water, it's a bleak picture with plenty of ideas and the potential to make for moving, purposeful, and maybe even life-changing cinema, but the picture is so bland and the deeper thematic complexities only marginally realized so as to leave viewers with a feeling of detachment and, ultimately, an emptiness when the film concludes, realizing that it represents but the periphery of greatness and an example of painfully unrealized potential. Lady in the Water still earns an above-average mark for effort, its strong casting, quality score from James Newton Howard (I Am Legend), and Shyamalan's always brilliant craftsmanship, but few films are as disappointing as this when such a magnificently greater good seems so close to realization but ultimately so far away and, unfortunately, never likely to be brought to fruition. Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release of Lady in the Water is rather stale, the 1080p picture quality bland yet reflective of the source and the lossy Dolby Digital track serviceable at best. A few good standard-definition extras round out what is a passable but ultimately underwhelming Blu-ray package.
Alternate Cut
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