Lady in the Water
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: July 21, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
20
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is sloppy filmmaking, and it's likely to wipe away whatever luster still remains to Shyamalan's reputation. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The film is a rogue hunk of hooey. Read full review
38
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The result is a soggy swamp of nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyahing, its only grace notes are Giamatti's fine, nuanced performance as Heep and Christopher Doyle's handsome cinematography. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
This isn't nitpicking. Every bit of the tale is as full of holes as a wool sweater at a moth convention, and Shyamalan telegraphs each potential surprise. Read full review
33
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
If you're not a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's convoluted, teasing thrillers, you'll find that getting into this movie is like cracking a puzzle in which the constructor keeps breaking his own rules or grabbing new ones from ultra-thin air. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
There is something bizarrely compelling about the movie. It's slower than watching a train wreck but invokes that same level of disbelief. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Challenges us to believe in the power of myth. But the big challenge here is surviving the tedium of Shyamalan's meandering inventiveness. What's supposed to be fanciful storytelling is really just audience punishment. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Lady is more of an ensemble picture, and truly the Cove is the most ethnically diverse and community-minded apartment complex in the continental United States. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
I suspect audiences will see Shyamalan's portentous doodle for what it is - the height of arrogance and a bad night out at the movies. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It comes off as tedious, pretentious, self-indulgent, talky and so garbled it might have been improvised by the actors. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
A charmless, unscary, fatuous and largely incoherent fairy tale. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Crazy as this might sound, it turns out that self-indulgent ramblings designed to put your children to sleep are pretty much the opposite of art. Read full review
10
Village VoiceMichael 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. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
This cloying piece of claptrap sets a high-water mark for pomposity, condescension, false profundity and true turgidity -- no small accomplishment for the man whose last two features were the deadly duo "Signs" and "The Village."
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