Wow

Looks like reception to Lady in the Water has been less-than-thrilled. At rottentomatoes.com, the overall number of good reviews are among the lowest of any movie I've seen this year. This isn't exactly surprising, considering the movie has a lot on its mind and it doesn't steep itself in its mythology in the best way (as I refer to in my own review, the way the mythology is laid out is the most annoying aspect of the movie). As someone who doesn't read any reviews before taking on the task himself, I'm not surprised when there is disagreement--but this is an overwhelming, almost did-I-see-the-same-movie kind of response.

And then I wonder--is a movie like Lady in the Water, all dreamlike and dense, a movie better suited to watching in a room full of people during the daytime, or by yourself in the early morning hours? Or some other combination? There is no doubt that different factors of time, place, and particular audience vary a degree of enjoyment in a film. I usually see movies by myself, and I've found that some of the movies I've seen have a different feel when I watch them under different circumstances. How a movie hits you is a unique experience, to be sure, one that makes film criticism a truly inexact "science."

It reminds me of my love of Contact, the Zemeckis film based on the Carl Sagan novel. There are scenes in that movie that seem so perfect to me and I loved it. But then, you have an everyday moviegoer, I feel typified by Mr. Garrison in one "South Park" episode, who vomits in the mentioning of it and says, "I watched that whole movie to see the alien and it turned out to be her goddamn father."

Who knows what time will do to this picture. Right now, I think it's something that will be enjoyed years down the road. Of course, it could be one of those that will be forever panned as a prime example of ego run amok. There's no doubt Shyamalan has one of those--I sometimes wonder if that's what hurts his films the most, especially with critics who, before the movie even starts are saying, "OK, Mr. Mastermind. Show me something." I've seen that kind of sentiment laced through many of the reviews I've read today. There's no doubt it's within the collective critic consciousness.

By the way, despite my rather warm reception to the movie, I do think John Q Average will hate this movie passionately. It all goes back to the Garrison quote. People want strictly entertainment, escape, not ponderance. Nothing wrong with that, for sure.