 Once upon a time, there was an Indian-born filmmaker called M Night Shyamalan, who proved it was still possible to wrong-foot savvy audiences with his 1999 supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense. The daring final twist captured the public imagination and propelled the film to six Oscar nominations. His subsequent pictures - Unbreakable, Signs and The Village - have been disappointments in comparison, too caught up with plot mechanics and last-gasp surprises (however preposterous) to care about fully-rounded characters. For his latest film, Shyamalan creates a modern day fairy-tale full of magic and wonder, which unfolds in the unlikely setting of a rundown apartment complex. Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), the lonely superintendent of an apartment block called The Cove, has tried to forget about his troubled past by immersing himself in his humdrum work. He trudges from one room to the next, replacing light bulbs and fixing broken appliances, trading pleasantries with the residents, including college student Young-Soon Choi and, curmudgeonly film and book critic Mr Farber (Bob Balaban). The fleeting moments of human contact get Cleveland through the day, until he retires to his room and his painful memories. For weeks, Cleveland has heard strange noises emanating from the building's communal swimming pool at night, as if some kind of animal is in the water. One night, he learns the fantastical truth: a beautiful nymph-like creature called Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) has crossed from her world into our own, and now resides in the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the pool. Young-Soon Choi tells Cleveland that Story is a Narf, a fabled character from a bedtime story, who must return to The Blue World on the wings of a 40-foot bird called The Great Eatlon. However, Story is in great danger because deadly predators called Scrunts - wolf-like creatures with grass for fur - will be hunting her down. The only hope is for Cleveland to discover the identities of a Narf's protectors: a Guardian, a Healer, a Guild and a Symbolist. The answer lies within The Cove. Lady In The Water is a gently involving fantasy. Giamatti's solid lead performance and flashes of humour lift the picture, while Shyamalan's one-note portrayal of an aspiring writer, whose words will apparently "sow the seeds of change", seems like self-adoration on a grand scale. | 
Movie double-acts come in all shapes and sizes ...and with varying degrees of success.
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