Lady in the Water is a 2006 American fantasy psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who produced with Sam Mercer.

The film features the starring cast of Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard with Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Sarita Choudhury, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin and Jared Harris in supporting roles.

Gradually, he and his neighbors learn that she is a water nymph (or Narf) whose life is in danger from a vicious, wolf-like, mystical creature called a Scrunt that tries to keep her from returning to her watery "blue world".

Story, who has come from the Blue World, explains that she has arrived to find the Writer, the "vessel" who will be magically awakened when he meets her, and then write a book that will save humanity in the future.

The Tartutic, an invincible simian-like trio that serve as the Blue World's peacekeeping force, have forbidden any attack on Story while she travels home.

Interpreting the information on cereal boxes, Joey deduces the true Guild is composed of seven sisters, that two new men must be present, and that the Healer is a man, soon revealed to be Heep.

Disney executive Nina Jacobson had spoken with Shyamalan about the film's storyline, the idea for which studio chairman Dick Cook didn't understand.

[5][6][7] Shyamalan established a production facility at the Jacobson Logistics warehouse site in nearby Levittown, Pennsylvania, where sets for the apartment complex and a half-city block of row houses were built.

The site's critical consensus reads, "A far-fetched story with little suspense and unconvincing scenarios, Lady in the Water feels contrived, pretentious, and rather silly.

[12] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B− on scale of A to F.[13] Brian Lowry of Variety magazine wrote a scathing advance review that appeared on July 16, 2006.

Many reviewers attacked this perceived self-indulgence: Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote of the story, "Apparently those who live in the water now roam the earth trying to make us listen, though initially it's rather foggy as to what precisely we are supposed to hear—the crash of the waves, the songs of the sirens, the voice of God—until we realize that of course we're meant to cup our ear to an even higher power: Mr.

Anyone else is likely to be perplexed by the muddled mythmaking or actively astonished at the self-indulgent ego of a writer-director-producer who casts himself in the role of a visionary writer whose martyrdom will change the world.

"[16] Michael Medved gave Lady in the Water one-and-a-half stars (out of four) calling it, "…a full-out, flamboyant cinematic disaster, a work of nearly unparalleled arrogance and vapidity", adding, "…Lady in the Water is all wet…"[17] Also panned was the fact that the film was based on a bedtime story Shyamalan told to his children; Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat commented: "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time.

[20][21] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard…[t]here is a good chunk of Lady in the Water that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance.

The Man Who Heard Voices (Gotham Books, New York, ISBN 1-59240-213-5), by Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger, recounting the making of the film, was released July 20, 2006.