Schadenfreude
From everything I have seen, The Lady in the Water is going to be a complete dud. (The positive reviews one sees in the TV advertisement come from sources one would only cite when no reputable source likes the movie.) While I really like Paul Giamatti, I have grown quite weary of M. Night Shyamalan and have enjoyed the critical skewering he has received as of late. (For example, see here.) While I thought The Sixth Sense was fantastic, I was thoroughly disappointed with Signs and thought the twist was inane. (I missed both Unbreakable and The Village which virtually everyone agreed was his worst film yet.) Yet what makes me most happy with his suffering is how ripe he is for the let down. Perhaps the most enjoyable was the NY Times trashing not only of Michael Bamberger's The Man Who Heard Voices, a hagiography of Shyamalan, but also of the auteur himself. All A-list directors have big egos (and I'm sure the B- and C-list ones do as well), but Shyamalan seems convinced that he is the love child of Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock and that he can act! I hope that when the movie bombs, he will learn something. I only fear what will happen if it does well.
Labels: Movies
posted by Isaac, your bartender @ 12:46 PM
3 Comments:
The Village was easily his best film, and one of the few instant classics of the past decade.
Bryce Dallas Howard gave a simply staggering performance throughout the film, and the porch monologue delivered by Joachim Phoenix is extremely moving.
The only problem I had with the movie was the thickness with which the messages were laid - but no, I won't proffer any spoilers, but I do suggest you see the movie and form your own opinion.
It's unfortunate that perceived ego is as much poison as actual ego.
M. Night is a great talent. His movies require one to have an imagination, which it seems most Americans have lost. Because of his success with The Sixth Sense, he was able to defy Hollywood and make movies that aren't the same old fodder. For this alone he should be praised. People have been trained by Hollywood to expect a certain pace, a certain ending. This is so even with Hollywood movies that are supposed to be "edgy" and "wierd". M. Night's movies are truly strange and wonderful, truly "edgy" and "wierd". They are titanic even though they are presented as tiny worlds. I'm a big fan and can't wait to see the next one.
The twist in The Village was a one hundred percent rip off of the children's book Running out of Time, published a decade earlier. It made MNS look like a plagarist as well as a hack!
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