maybe its just the time of the day clouding my judgment, or the caffeine bumping in my veins, but little-accounted-for m. night shyamalan's 'lady in the water' is a beautiful film with characters that touch you from the other side of the screen. only a wizard like shyamalan -and his quality of the understated- could take a fairy tale and spin it with his camera shots and his succint dialogue and his minimal frames and do this to you. keep you thinking about it long after it's over like a name you can't remember.

or maybe i'm just, you know, the fairy tale type.