by Ivaylo Shmilev
Jonas and Verena, being very good friends of mine and also often being forced to read/listen to my crazy ramblings, invited me to re-post some thoughts I had written more than 19 months ago on Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water. It was an invitation I could not resist, and I am very grateful for it. Thanks, guys! So here, in slightly edited and updated form, is what went through my mind when I saw that film again three years or so after it initially came out; I hope you will enjoy it. — Evil Ivo over & out
Last night, I saw Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water for the first time since its original release in 2006. I encountered a multitude of themes that I had probably missed back then. To begin with a nice long list, some of those included: Mr. Heep’s struggle to overcome his tremendous feeling of guilt for the death of his family, and his ultimate success; the understanding that Mrs. Choi, coming from an undisclosed East Asian country, is not “inscrutable” and “impenetrable,” as most current films have it about East Asian people, but is instrumental in acquainting the other characters with the real story about Story; the visions of a little boy (Joey Dury) who can guide adult people to the truth, even when reading supernatural messages off cereal boxes; a man (Mr. Leeds) who can keep his bizarre, even slightly offensive silence most of the time, but speaks with weight and power when the right moment arrives; and a critic who has to die – so that critics may live.
