Dark Water
Asian horror has become a
huge cult success. The films have a tendency to toy with the
conventions of ghost stories, putting mood and quick shocks over old-fashioned
phantom lore or coherent stories. In recent years, these films have
been making their way to the US, with Americanized remakes of some of the
more popular Asian ghost stories like The Ring, The Grudge and the
upcoming Skeleton Key becoming cheap-and-easy-to-make thrillers.
Dark Water is yet
another of these remakes. In fact, in theory it is probably the most
promising. It certainly has more talent behind it than any of the
previous retreads.
It stars an Oscar-winning
and very serious actress in Jennifer Connelly. Other award-caliber
castmates include John C. Reilly (Chicago), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction),
Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father), Dougray Scott (Mission
Impossible: 2) and Camryn Manheim (The Practice). The
screenplay was written by Rafael Yglesias, whose 1994 Oscar-nominated
adaptation of his own novel Fearless was one of the ten best films of
the 90s. Revered Latin American director Walter Salles (Motorcycle
Diaries, Central Station) is making his Hollywood debut.
So, Dark Water has a
hell of a lot of talent in front of and behind the camera. Too bad
what comes of all that flair is squandered on an extremely well-made,
pretty-scary-but-also-kinda-dumb thriller.
The problem is that so much
time and effort is expended on atmosphere, which is appropriately paranoid
and stifling, that they didn't take the time to realize that there was
nothing truly horrifying going on. Add to that the fact that the plot
was alternately very predictable (after a while, even the densest audience
member is going to notice that there must be a reason why they keep showing
the water tower on the roof for no particular reason) and rather silly
(black rain inside an apartment may be scary at first, but eventually it
just becomes an overwrought renter's nightmare) and you have an interesting
experiment that misfires more than it lights up. (Must be all that
moisture around.)
Connelly plays Dahlia, a
depressed and scared New York woman in the middle of a divorce with her ex (Dougray
Scott) and a bitter custody battle over their cute little daughter (Ariel
Gade). Desperate to find a home which will prove that she can provide
a stable home, Dahlia takes an apartment in one of the most dank and
decrepit tenements on nearby Roosevelt Island. It is hard to believe
that anyone ever would rent in this hell hole, until one simple fact is
explained that makes it all make some weird sense -- it is a two-bedroom
apartment in the New York area that costs $900.00 a month. Anything
under $1,000.00 a month in New York is either going to be a war zone,
rat-infested or the size of a Buick, so you can almost understand how Dahlia
becomes desperate enough to be a tenant here. Besides, as she explains
to her husband, it has a good school right across the street.
Too bad the apartment was
even worse than she could imagine. (Dark Water really is the
first film to point out that cheap real estate in the five boroughs MAY KILL
YOU!) She's not there for a day before she notices a leak of
strangely-colored liquid trickling into her bedroom. She hears strange
sounds in the apartment above her. A couple of juvenile delinquents
from the building start harassing her. There is also a vague story
going about the building about a girl disappearing from the upstairs
apartment.
As the dark water continues
to intrude into her living space (leaking faster from the roof, pouring out
spigots, welling up toilets and drains) her glib landlord (Reilly) and
spooky super (Postelthwaite) give her the run around as Dahlia's grasp on
sanity becomes more and more tenuous. She hired a gypsy lawyer (Roth
-- and yes, I thought the idea of a rootless lawyer was impossible, too,
before this film) to work the divorce and he helps her with her tenant's
complaints as well. But, evil is loose and leads to a really weird
(and not in a good way) climax -- one that makes little sense dramatically
or for the character.
Connelly, in all fairness,
gives it all she's got -- she plays this hocus pocus as intently as if she
was in Requiem For a Dream or A Beautiful Mind. However,
sadly, this film makes only slightly more sense than her last horror film --
a silly Italian slasher flick called Phenomena made when she was only
about twelve. The rest of the cast also struggles heroically to impart
some gravitas to the goings on. Salles' direction is phenomenally
evocative and moody (though not exactly horrifying.) The script is
well-written enough as well, but the situations (mostly from the original
Asian film) are just too dumb to take seriously.
(7/05)
Jay
S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2005
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: July 16, 2005.
