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As was noted in both the trailer of the movie and interviews with M. Night Shyamalan, Lady in the Water was originally a bedtime story that Shyamalan told his daughters. Although expanded to feature-film length, the core story still comes across as something flimsy and half-formed, as though it was being made up on the fly by someone nightly in their daughter's bedroom. Plot holes and barely understood characters are the rule of the day and try as he might, Shyamalan the director can't make a go of what Shyamalan the writer has given him.

The aptly named Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), is the stuttering super of a non-descript apartment building. When not fixing sinks and killing spiders, he tries to figure out who is swimming in the complex pool. It turns out to be Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), a narf from the "Blue World." Narfs have vaguely defined powers in relation to humans, but one of them is, apparently, curing writers block. Since the complex has a blocked writer, Vick (Shyamalan), Story does whatever it is she does for him (it seems to just be being in his presence) and Vick is ready to write a book that will inspire someone who reads it to change the world. Unfortunately, after Story unclogs Vick's brain for him, she still has to get home, carried there by a giant eagle. There are all sorts of rules that go along with this (isn't that always the way) and she's being stalked by a scrunt. A scrunt is a dog made out of grass (don't worry, the monkey-like tree creatures are after the grass dog). Heep tries to get the odd-ball tenants of the building (Jeffery Wright, Bill Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Cindy Cheung, Sarita Choudhury) to help get Story to her rendezvous with the giant eagle (which, in a nice change, is made out of eagle parts, just bigger).

The types of questions that are raised by the, at turns, simplistic and nonsensical plot are never fully answered. The idea, it seems, is to forget nitpicking the numerous contradictions, plot-holes, undeveloped characters, and implausibilities and just sorta.....go with it. Release your inner-child and dream of a better world and a better connection with the muse inside all of us. Or maybe not. It's never clear what point Shyamalan is trying to get across and therefore, the audience doesn't want to invest in anything that's happening. Since there doesn't seem to be a point, it comes down to the story about Story and that story is really kind of, well, dumb.

It's not all bad, of course. Giamatti gives his all and makes you believe in a sad lonely man trying to do a great thing. Howard is almost too brittle and withdrawn to make Story a character that you care about, but many of the building tenants are either humorous or interesting. At times you might wish Shyamalan would have dumped the mythical creatures and what not and just shown what is going on with all these sometimes interesting people. Also, as with The Village, Shyamalan is great at setting a mood, making you believe that something thrilling is just around the corner, but this time without much payoff.