Atkinson, Shyamalan

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"Nothing will prepare you for the rampant foolishness" of M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water," says Village Voice critic Michael Atkinson. "It's as if on some semiconscious level, Shyamalan, who I do not doubt is a serious and self- serious pop-creative original, is calling his own success into question and daring his audience to gulp down larger and spikier clusters of manure, just to see if they will. Or he's lost his mind."

As I wrote last week, I think Shyamalan's sub-conscious game is to get people to write him off and perhaps even deliberately create a huge failure so he can escape from the penitentiary of his Sixth Sense legend and the large expectations that have come from that. Overly, consciously, I'm sure he wants audiences and critics to like Lady in the Water...naturally. But life is always, always about the deep-down stuff.

"This isn't magical realism, it's pure magical thinking," Atkinson continues, with Shyamalan "mystically assuming that any idea or image that pops into his skull will make a shapely tale, no matter how much cock-and-bull logic he has to invent to Gorilla Glue it together. Like all his movies from The Sixth Sense on, Lady pivots on the dawning awareness of a vast cosmic plan, foisted on grieving parents and spouses as a holy scab for their wounds. [And] it's beginning to chafe as a formula."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 19, 2006 at 11:11 AM

comment #1

Colin says ...

Interstingly, the Voice also has an article by Michael Koresky defending Night's oeuvre, including Lady. As he explains it, "[w]hile his other films are predicated on explanations, this one stands apart by defying them."

I really don't know what to expect going into it.

Posted by Colin at July 19, 2006 11:28 AM

comment #2

Lisa says ...

I want to see it because of all the fuss but at the same time, if it's that bad a movie ...

I mean I loved Signs as a movie until the last five minutes. The ending made me really angry. I would have preferred it if they had just ended the movie there and not explained why the Aliens left. That would not have been a great ending but I would have gone home without wanting to kill someone.

Posted by Lisa at July 19, 2006 12:52 PM

comment #3

Anonymous says ...

Atkinson writes well about genre films; his "Ghosts in the Machine" collection of essays has an excellent piece on the political content of the "Planet of the Apes" films.

Posted by Anonymous at July 19, 2006 1:32 PM

comment #4

Inside Man says ...

I'm sorry to say, but the only critic that counts is the weekend's box office performance. If LADY opens big, Night is vindicated of all artistic sins. You'd be a fool to think it works any other way.

Posted by Inside Man at July 19, 2006 3:36 PM

comment #5

Adam Smith says ...

The only critic that counts is box office? Well, boys and girls, we might as well fold our tents and put the words away. Why bother thinking at all?

Posted by Adam Smith at July 19, 2006 11:27 PM

comment #6

Linden says ...

Inside Man is right. If we're talking about whether the studio will see rejecting Lady in the Water as a good move, then box office not critics is what will determine that. And looking at the amount of crap Hollywood churns out, I'd say it's pretty clear that to them dollars matter more than critics.

Posted by Linden at July 20, 2006 12:53 AM

comment #7