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Time is running out for a happy ending.
M. Night Shyamalan writes and directs this self-proclaimed, grown-up "bedtime story" about an apartment building superintendent named Cleveland (Paul Giamatti) who discovers a magical sea-nymph named Story (Bryce Dallas Howard) who's been transported to this world and is living in the building's own swimming pool. As this bizarre revelation sinks in, Cleveland becomes enraptured by her other-worldly charm. As he shelters her in his apartment, other inhabitants of the building begin falling into place as representations of characters from an Eastern myth in which these mermaids, or "narfs," co-exist unhappily with more beastly and violent characters. In human reality, the forces of darkness that threaten the heroes of a fairy tale prove to be much more terrifying, and the victory of good over evil is by no means guaranteed. Jeffery Wright, Jared Harris and Mary Beth Hurt co-star, as well as Shyamalan himself, playing the visionary writer Vick.
This movie contains examples of:[]
- Asian Airhead: Young-Soon Choi, the none-too-stellar Korean student.
- Author Avatar: Vick.
- Almighty Janitor: Cleveland, to an extent.
- Big Badass Wolf: The Scrunts.
- The Cameo: Shyamalan does this in all his films. This is the first time he's a major character.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Much like Inglourious Basterds is a tribute to the Magnificent Bastard trope, this movie revels in this one. Literally every early background character becomes crucial to the plot later on. Yet despite this, the last bit with Reggie still felt like an Ass Pull.
- His role was slightly foreshadowed when he talks about how he's doing his "exercise experiments" because he wants to do something special.
- He's also watching in the background of a lot of crowd scenes...y'know, like a watchman, or a guardian maybe?
- Doing It for the Art: Pretty much Shyamalan's only excuse for including himself as The Messiah.
- Death by Genre Savviness: The critic, whose demise is a thinly-veiled Take That against people who don't like Shyamalan's movies.
- Fiery Redhead: Averted with Story, who is quite mild-mannered, if not outright timid despite having gorgeous red hair.
- Fish Out of Water: Story, literally.
- Friend to All Living Things: The identifying mark of the Healer is attracting butterflies.
- Genre Savvy: A main plot point is the characters discovering that they are in a fairy tale, but it is soon subverted when they start acting out the wrong roles.
- Giant Flyer: The Great Eathlon.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Story.
- Lampshade Hanging: The critic.
- Loads and Loads of Characters
- Maniac Monkeys: The Tartutic.
- The Messiah: Vick.
- Meaningful Name: Story.
- Meta Twist: In the context of Shyamalan's other films.
- Mysterious Waif: Story
- Never Trust a Trailer: This was marketed as a horror movie. But the first teaser made it look almost like a mystical romance.
- Not What It Looks Like: Vick's sister assumes Cleveland and Story are up to no good when she and Vick see Story wearing nothing but his shirt.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Narfs are sea nymphs that exist to "awaken" people... and get carried away by giant eagles.
- Please Put Some Clothes On
- Redemption in the Rain
- Scare Chord
- Self-Made Orphan: The Tartutic.
- Sexy Shirt Switch
- Shrinking Violet: Story.
- Straw Critic
- Take That, Critics!
- Urban Fantasy
- Writer on Board
- Wrong Genre Savvy