Dark Water

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Let me first preface this by saying that I went and saw this movie Friday afternoon at the 11:55 showing. It was hot as hell outside, so I figured some nice a/c at the theater would be a vast improvement for my mood and sweat-quantity. Unfortunately, there was a couple that came into the theater about ten minutes into the movie and talked at normal volume-level throughout the whole movie (minus the time that they left during the movie for about ten minutes) despite me telling them to shut up twice and the only other guy in the theater moving to sit way in the back so that he didn't have to hear them quite so much. So needless to say, my review probably was slightly affected by this, though I'm still gonna try to be as objective as possible. Oh, and the guy sitting in front of me starting passing rank gas through the last 20 minutes of the movie. Which also didn't help.

Plotline: Jennifer Connelly's character is getting a divorce from her husband. This means she has to find a new place to live for her and her daughter, Ceci, which ends up being a shithole apartment with a bubbling black water leak. No one seems to care about the leak which keeps getting bigger and filthier except her. Once her daughter starts talking to an imaginary friend on a regular basis and everything starts showing up ravaged by filthy black waters, Connelly must question whether she's going mad.

Scariness factor: Not too high--during most of the movie it was raining or the characters were trapped in a dark filthy apartment, so the movie had a creepy tone to it, similar to the grungy eeriness of Se7en. But I wasn't on edge at all during it.

Originality: Fairly original, I suppose. Though the resolution to the story seemed eerily familiar to me, and I'm not quite sure why.

Complaints: The foul gas and incessant talking. As for the movie, I think it was perhaps just pacing. The movie waddled along kind of sluggishly and never really picked up pace. And I never really felt engaged with the characters or really compelled and curious as to what was going on. And the ending was kinda lame.

High Points: I love John C. Reilly. The man is fantastic no matter what the hell he is in. He played a great bastard landlord in this flick. Also Tim Roth made a surprise appearance as an attorney, which made me happy since I haven't really seen him in anything good for a while.

Overall: Take this review with a grain of salt. I would genuinely like to give this movie a second chance once it comes out on dvd because I felt it had enough going for it that, given my undivided attention, I might actually enjoy it quite a bit.

Grade: C+/B-