28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
Member since:08.03.2004
Reviews:116
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After finding a mysterious young woman lurking in the pool at the apartment block that he caretakes, lonely apartment block manager Cleveland Heep rescues her from drowning. Unbeknown to him, she is an otherworldy being called Story who exists within the confounds of a famous bedtime story. Her motives are revealed in the form of a message for humanity. Surrounded by people who act as some kind of canvas for the story, Cleveland discovers that each of his tenants have some kind of hand on the key to unlocking the secrets and assisting her safely home. And as danger looms over the habitants of the apartment complex and the wide-eyed Story, everybody congregates to protect her from an evil beast that lurks in the grass and can be seen only in mans reflection.
Director and writer M Night Shyamalan has become reknowned for his fantastical story's of other worldly existences. The ultimate pay off in his films are their tremedously believable twists that have you questioning everything you viewed before it. He also has an amazing insight into the human soul, often pitting the saviour of his art as much a lost soul as the lost soul they are saving. Paul Giamatti is neither as instantly wide eyed as Haley Joel Osmont in The Sixth Sense or as flawed and broken as Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, but he lends a subtle depth to his awestruck persona. Bryce Dallas Howard is completely mesmerising as Story, heartbreaking and breathtaking in her plight to get back to her own world whilst offering a catalyst for the characters around her. Whilst the story is at times awkward and a little disjointed, the mystery and intensity comes across in all the right places. What doesn't work so well is the introduction to so many characters. You simply dont get enough time to get to know many of them, so they end up feeling a little bit underused, and unneccessary. Shyamalan fancies himself as an actor, and as decent as he is, he is outweighed by his leads. He is superb as a director and a creator, but his Hitchcockian ego requiring him to appear in every film goes over the score as he himself is cast as one of the major players in this film. An audience such as Shyamalan's will look for the nudges and the winks, so therefore we dont need them full throttle in the face. That said, after the pointless "Signs" and the rather odd "The Village" its nice to see the man back on form here with a cast that are up to the job and a story that is awesome and believable at the same time.
The score for this film is tremendously atmospheric, and is similar in style and build up as the soundtrack to The Sixth Sense. The look of the film is fairly ordinary considering Shyamalan's grasp of which images and angles work best. But the realistic lighting lends an eerieness to the story as well. The extra's are pretty decent, with a documentary of the making of and how the story came to be (would you believe it started as a bedtime story that M Night read to his little ones).
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Science Fiction - Director: Hiroyuki Yamaga - Original Language: Japanese - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ayako Kawasumi, Fujiko Takimoto
Feb 20th, 2007
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