A damp squib_英文原版
remember the tinfoil hats in m. night shyamalan's alien invasion film signs?
well, the idiosyncratic writer-director has chosen to develop this absurdist strain of humour much further in his latest supernatural mystery, lady in the water.
the effect is to stretch our credulity to breaking point. at times you can actually feel the fabric of the film fraying under the tension.
without sideways star paul giamatti in the lead role, this lady would be dead in the water.
the 39-year-old actor lends apartment building superintendent cleveland heep enough depth to anchor even the sillier moments of the story.
bryce dallas howard doesn't fare quite so well in the naive role of hismer-muse - or narf, in the terminology of the film - but then, she doesn't have a whole lot to work with.
coming from another universe, as she does, the role models are few and far between.
howard's already pale features are further highlighted for the role of story, a character from an ancient chinese fairytale.
she and heep bond after she rescues him from drowning in the pool he maintains and she lives in.
and he returns the favour when she is about to be ravaged by what looks like a large feral dog.
as they awkwardly get to know each other, heep learns that story is actually a mythical character who has travelled to philadelphia by mysterious means in order to save mankind.
however, after her task is completed, the planets slip out of alignment.
heep and an ill-assorted bunch of tenants - which includes a movie critic, an iron-pumping eccentric and a gaggle of stoners - band together to help get her back to the world she came from.
working against time, they decipher the codes which will unlock her pathway to freedom. this is where the balance between the ordinary and the extraordinary really starts to wobble.
since his successful supernatural thriller the sixth sense, shyamalan's films have proved increasingly eccentric. this one slides erratically between the sublime and the ridiculous - but it's definitely weighted towards the latter end of the continuum.
imagine melrose place transported to a run-down building on the outskirts of philadelphia and given a supernatural spin and you're on the right track.
the film's tacky, computer-generated "grass" predators do nothing to undermine this impression.
about two-thirds the way through lady in the water there's a scene in which heep must act like a child in order to hear the end of the bedtime story (this includes leaving his milk moustache dripping from his real one).
shyamalan is presumably exhorting us, at this point, to stay with our inner five-year-old. but perhaps he is holding on to his a bit too tightly.