Lady in the Water (DVD)

May I tell you a truth most people will be unwilling to accept? Lady in the Water is M. Night Shyamalan's best film ever. Yup, better than The Sixth Sense, which is great the first time thanks to its fantastic twist. Better than Signs, the water twist sort of ruins that one. Better than The Village, which disappointed us all even if it introduced Bryce Dallas Howard as one of our premiere up and coming actresses, and of course better than Unbreakable which I did not like at all. Lady in the Water is one of the most imaginative films I have ever seen. The story is relatively simple; it is in its telling that it is great.

A woman living in an apartment complex pool and a mythological tale of her existence guide a large group of tenants on a trail they would have never believed be true. There is tons of cheesy dialogue, but none of it matters as it all leads up to an ending that is inspiring and emotionally moving in its innocence.

Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard give fantastic performances as the lead characters and all of the supporting cast manages to read their lines, cheesy or not, in such a way that they become believable characters in this unbelievable story. The film was sold as a bedtime story, but marketing and even an explanation can't really get across what that means as several of us are too old to remember a good bedtime story. What it means is that you have to suspend reality and fall into the false reality being presented to you. Let your imagination run wild and accept what you see on screen. It is easy to get to know the characters; your opinion of this film relies solely on how willing you are to let the story in.

Lady in the Water is a dark and moving story and one I am hoping more people give a chance on DVD than they did in theaters. Let's take a peek at the special features.

Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story (5:00) - This is pretty much a short commercial for the book written by M. Night Shyamalan that is the bedtime story he told his children before it all became a movie. He talks a bit about the beginnings of the story, but if you are looking for that story the following feature is more up your alley.

Reflections of Lady in the Water (34:45) - A six-part documentary on the making of the film that begins with a look at the script and its origin, to the casting of the characters, the look of the film with a focus on director of photography Christopher Doyle and his eccentricities, the location of the shoot which was only the apartment complex and was built over eight weeks, the creatures in the film and then post-production.

Auditions (2:00) - Pretty much worthless as they only show you a couple of meaningful audition tapes interspersed between several shots of people auditioning for the role as the vomiting man. It's not as funny as the creators probably thought it was.

Gag Reel (3:05) - It's a gag reel, nothing more I can say.

Deleted Scenes (5:00) - Here you get six deleted scenes, of which about three are actually interesting but all are good cuts, especially the final one which may have been a bit too cheesy for the film, which was cheesy enough.

M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water may be a bit ego driven and at times a bit spiteful (particularly towards film critics), but the actual story the film presents is one of the best of the year, too bad no one gave it a chance. Domestically it only brought in $42.2 million at the box-office and its $72 million worldwide take allowed the movie to just barely make its money back. Since The Sixth Sense Night's films have slowly made less and less money at the box-office and people began to judge the filmmaker that had the breakthrough first film and is yet to live up to its success. Yeah, Signs made slightly less that The Sixth Sense but people still perceive Sixth Sense to be the career defining film for Night and after Lady in the Water's demise and the negative public perception he has gained his next film is going to be under a serious microscope.