Fridae

M Night Shyamalan made a name for himself with the still talked-about The Sixth Sense, but his follow-ups were unevenly received, to say the least. Lady in the Water looks set to continue the trend — this “modern fairy tale” takes quite some getting used to, and Shyamalan never makes it easy for audiences.

Starting out a little like Splash — sad sack Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) discovers that the pool in his apartment holds a mystical (and naked) aquatic creature. The creature's name is Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), a narf from The Blue World, and her life is in danger because she is being pursued by the Scrunt, a wolf-like animal. In order to help Story, Cleveland needs to enlist the help of his neighbours, but not everyone is willing to pitch in...

In a departure from Shyamalan's previous works, Lady in the Water offers no major twists in the tale, but due to the nature of the storyline, still requires a big leap of faith for audiences. Therein lies the key to enjoying this movie — one has to decide how much of the film to take seriously, despite this being touted as a fairy tale. This is one movie that is likely to induce extreme reactions from audiences — you will either love it or hate it.