I would venture to say that M. Night Shyamalan is slowly, but surely, losing his right mind.  This is the overwhelming sense I got whilst viewing the super talented filmmakers latest creation, ‘Lady in the Water’ which develops like a fairytale like thing that ultimately confused the hell out of me, but is still worth high marks from this here critic due to it’s originality.

Similar to Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ and ‘The Village’, ‘Lady in the Water’ takes place in an extremely confined location, virtually locked away from the outside world.  The innerworld this time is The Cove, a little co-op style apartment complex fraught with diversity and strange people, and operated by the reclusive, stuttering Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti).  While patrolling the pool one night, attempting to catch one of the  tenants illegally swimming after hours, Cleveland slips and bumps his head on the side of the pool.  When he awakens, he is greeted by Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) who seems lost and confused.  As the story begins to unfold itself, Story is a Narf from some mystical land, who has landed to save us earth dwellers from ourselves, but not if the evil Scrunts, wild dog looking creatures with bright red eyes and grassy backs have anything to say about it.  They hate Narfs and will do anything to kill them.  At least while they are out of the water.  There are rules, and the Scrunts can’t hurt the Narfs when they are in water.  There are all kinds of other rules too, but we won’t get into those.

It is a credit to Shyamalan’s gifts as a filmmaker that no matter how confusing, how off track, how many new elements are tossed into his swirling mishmash of a plot that

‘Lady in the Water’ never becomes, at least to me, dull, boring or uninteresting.  There is an awful lot invested into this made up mythology of the Snarf fairytale world, and you sit there, confused, baffled, bewildered trusting that soon enough it’s all going to become clear.  Then, right when you think it’s about to make a little bit of sense, it all changes and then there’s new rules and new people…Maybe, after repeated viewings, it does all become clear, but for an average brain alcohol damaged joe like myself, it’s just a ball of confusion.

But despite the befuddlement of it all, he does manage to keep you engaged in the moment because even if you don’t understand what’s going on, it’s still moving with such confidence and assuredness and at such a brisk pace, it keeps you transfixed to the screen.  Combine Shyamalan’s skill as a filmmaker with a great cast and the recipe for a great movie is two thirds of the way their.  If only the story, probably the most important part of the recipe measured up.

Take your hat off for M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Lady in the Water’ for being something that is truly lacking in big studio movies today, and that’s originality.  I’d rather be confused out of my mind by an original lunatic director who’s slowly losing his grip on reality a thousand times over than watch one more TV show remake, Super Hero sequel, or coconut on the head comedy.  But, perhaps Mr. Shyamalan, for your next film, here’s hoping  you run across a script from some hot new screenwriter.  Take your amazing talent and make that into a film and cement your legend among the Hollywood greats.