Lady in the Water

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Lady in the Water's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Lady in the Water completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 5 September 2006.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Lady in the Water contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti), a shy stuttering superintendent of a low rent Philadelphia apartment building, encounters a strange woman in the swimming pool. The woman turns out to be a ‘narf' named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard). Narfs are nymph-like sea beings from an ancient world called the Blue World and Story has to complete a mission to do with one of the male tenants in the building before she can return to her own world. She is pursued from the Blue World by an evil wolf-like land being called a ‘scrunt' who is trying to prevent her from completing her mission.

Story is also helped by tree-like creatures called ‘tartutics'. The tenants in the building must also fulfil certain roles and band together, under Cleveland 's leadership, to help her.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Supernatural theme, death and grief

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• Cleveland Heep slips on the side of the pool, hits his head on cement and rolls unconscious into the pool
• a scrunt lunges at Cleveland as he carries a sleeping Story away from the pool. As it moves through the grass towards them snarling and growling, Story wakes up. Both Story and Cleveland scream as Cleveland , carrying Story, runs away from the scrunt.
• Story runs into Cleveland 's apartment crying and shaking, with large scratches on her legs, the inference being that she was attacked by the scrunt.
• as Story sits on the floor of Cleveland 's apartment, the head of the scrunt burst through a glass door panel to snarl and snap at Story's face.
• a scrunt charges at Story, and her unconscious body is dragged through the undergrowth by the shadowy images of the creature. There are large scratches and cuts on Story's lower legs.
• a scrunt snarls at a male tenant in the apartment building. When the man turns his back on the scrunt, it attacks and kills him. The man screams is shown being shaken and dragged down. The scrunt attacking is not shown nor is any blood and gore depicted.
• three monkey like creatures jump out of trees and attack the scrunt. We hear them pounding and squishing the scrunt, and see them pounding the scrunt with their fists. They drag the limp body of the scrunt into the forest.

Material that may scare children

Under five

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• the scrunt is a frightening looking creature that could traumatise younger children. It resembles a large wolf which has been created from plants and tree parts with a gapping maw and large fang-like teeth. The creature is very sinister and can hide unseen in the grass creeping and stalking through the undergrowth. It has an evil, cunning and savage nature designed to terrify
• the scene where the scrunt breaks through a glass door to snap and snarl at Story's face, is particularly intimidating and scary.
• tartutics also have a very brutish unnatural appearance with large fangs
• the illustrated prologue at the start of the film contains caveman-like images of scrunts eating narfs.

Aged five to eight

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

The above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, are also highly likely to scare or disturb children aged five to eight .

The following scene could also distress children aged five to eight . Cleveland Heep and a number of tenants band together to heal Story after she has been attacked by the scrunt. During the healing process Cleveland relives the story of how his wife and children were murdered by burglars robbing his house. The scene shows how Cleveland is still deeply in grief over the incident and how he regrets not having been there to protect his family.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children aged eight to thirteen, particularly those closer to the age of eight years could be disturbed by the scary appearance and sinister manner of the scrunts and tartutics, and by the scene in which Cleveland relives the murder of his wife and children.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Some children in this age range may be affected by the supernatural content of this film and the visual images of the scrunt and tartutics.

Product placement

None

Sexual references

There are a few mild sexual references in this movie, including:

• Cleveland is referred to as being “on the half take”, inferring that he is sexually intimate with Story

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Story is nude while sitting under a bathroom shower, with side views of bare arms, shoulders and legs being shown
• Story stands naked in front of Cleveland , with the lower back of her legs shown. Cleveland asks her to cover herself up
• a young attractive woman is shown wearing short shorts and a low cut top revealing her cleavage, bare back and midriff
• Cleveland wakes up sitting on his sofa with Story (wearing only one of Cleveland 's shirts) asleep draped across his lap

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• several scenes in which young men smoke a lot of cigarettes
• a party scene in which many people are drinking alcohol. One of the partygoers bends over and vomits on the ground. Later during the same party one of the tenants is shown staggering down the hallways of the apartment building holding a half full glass of beer.

Tobacco and alcohol consumption by adolescents and young adults was shown as being either glamorous, humorous or at least quite socially acceptable.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language and occasional verbal put downs in this movie, including:

• arse
• ‘the deaf, dumb and blind guy you are going to marry', implying someone is not likely to attract a husband.

The movie's message

Lady in the Water is a supernatural fantasy film that will appeal to some adults, but is at times difficult to follow. The main message from the movie is that it is important to find your purpose in life, that all people are connected and individual acts affect all of us.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include faith, courage, a willingness to believe in and fight for what is good, and courage to face personal fears and torments.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the issues around young adults smoking and drinking in an irresponsible manner.