I liked Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense, and I pretty well adored him for his highly underrated followup, Unbreakable. His films since then (despite any personal enjoyment on my part) have been less overtly, well, good than the first two.

Naturally, then, the question that is on your mind is: does Lady in the Water mark a return to the initial talent shown, or is it characterized by the lower watermarks from more recent films? Or, well, that would be your question if I’d seen it in July when it came out, instead of at the dollar movie over Labor Day weekend. Because, really, who cares about new movies this long after the fact without having seen them for themselves? (Besides, apparently, me.) Nevertheless, I’ve already started this review, so there’s nothing for it but that I pretend you really did ask, and answer.

You’re not going to like it, though.

The thing is, I’m just not sure. I remember wondering vaguely, at the time, why there was a lack of buzz. Positive or negative, it should have been there. Of course the possibility exists that people are just over him, and he no longer rates buzz. But I think the issue really is that I’m just not the only one who doesn’t know what to make of the movie. Because, sure, people make fairy tale movies. They just don’t choose to set them modernly when they do so, unless it’s an allegorical fairy tale. This one, being both literal and at the same time modern, causes too much cognitive dissonance at first glance to really figure it out. I think my biggest problem is suspension of disbelief. How am I supposed to allow fairy tale elements to creep into the real world without being skeptical of them?

Even worse, does this mean I’m insufficiently childlike at heart, anymore? ‘Cause that kind of sucks. And yet, the dedication to his daughters at the end and the implication that he filmed it as a love letter to them leaves me with little other conclusion to grab onto.

In any case, I will say that if you can get past the dichotomy, it’s a good fairy tale, with a workable blend of the frightening and the comedic. If it didn’t fall a little short in the Having a Clear Moral department, I’d probably be forced to call it a great fairy tale.