Weekend with Shyamalan and his Lady Friend

After having my Sundays subjected to hollywood crap for movies for most of the year, N. Shyamalan's Lady in the Water is like my answered prayer from boredom and mediocrity.

Despite all the hogwash critics are throwing, Lady in the Water is a gem. How a movie appeals to the audience is relative anyway. You might hate it or like it. However, most of the people I know who have seen it, whose thoughts are the former, seemed they really "didn't get it".

However, I understand their "what-the-heck" impressions on the film. I blame that on the viewing public and Hollywood's sin of boxing movies into naught categories. What really is a scary movie really? Should it always be complete with gore and nudity and sans plot and sense?

Lady in the Water is far more original than what "mainstream" media throws in nowadays. The bedtime/fairy tale story was brilliantly executed. The humor thrown into the story with the quirky dialogues and odd-ball characters are dead giveaways that the film isnt meant to be seen as 'just a scary movie'. Shyamalan is absolutely brilliant at being cryptic, yet accessible at the same time.

The film isnt just a thinking-movie as some might disagree. What I love about Shyamalan's work is not how creepy and clever his stories are but how it makes you feel after going out through those theater doors. It throws fundamental questions at you--- about the human spirit, defeat and self-awakening, about purpose-- without sounding or appearing preachy, and without you noticing. It makes you feel.

This has to be the Shyamalan's most personal film yet, opting for a fullfledged main character rather than the usual cameo. The whole thing with Story "awakening" his character seemed to be too telling for truth. It seemed like an attestation "to matter." However personal that storyline could have been, I felt connection with the character. We all need to matter.