|
Review:
 Is
it me or does Hideo Nakata hate little girls? The monster of his
“Ringu” series was a demonic little bitch who was thrown down a
well and managed to gain supernatural control of the VHS format.
This time his little monster controls water.
The original novel and film were Japanese, so there just HAD to be
a remake [for some reason horror fans don't like subtitles] and
great Brazilian director Walter Salles and screenwriter Rafael
Yglesias were given the job.
Dahlia(Jennifer Connelly) and her husband(Dougray Scott) are
getting divorced. Because of this, he's moving to Jersey city and
she's moving to Roosevelt Island with their daughter Ceci(Ariel
Gade) who's perfectly normal except for one thing…she sees dead
people…or rather one person, Natasia(Perla Haney-Jardine), who
used to live upstairs, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.
Now Roosevelt Island is a sliver of land between Manhattan and
Queens, a tiny bit of suburbia within a single subway stop from
the heart of New York City. Dahlia and Ceci are first introduced
to the place by the housing development's agent(John C Reilly),
who gives a really smarmy tour of the premises. Ceci hates it,
until she meets her new friend, who likes to turn on the taps in
her old apartment, something the super(Pete Postlethwaite) knows
about, but won't tell her.
The fluid of the title starts dripping from the ceiling, and
Dahlia complains. The super doesn't want to do anything until the
Agent passes on our heroine's complaint. But the water still keeps
on coming and even gets as far as the basement laundry room, where
the local hoods like to hang out.
Meanwhile Ceci is having problems in school. Natasia follows her
there and begins to bug her in a way that brings attention to
herself, which worries her the teacher(Camryn Manheim). Could this
be an evil conspiracy cooked up by Dahlia's soon to be ex?
Our heroine consults a cut-rate lawyer(Tim Roth), who isn't as bad
as he seems.
The normal family drama is a big distraction. As the tale is told
through the eyes of Dahlia, her emotional turmoil is the center of
the whole enterprise, and as reality begins to dissolve around
her, one thinks that a possible conspiracy by her evil ex is
within the realm of possibility, but of course he is innocent
despite his being a bastard from beginning to end.
The ending is straight out of “The Ring” and dozens of other
horror flicks. This film is a wilter. The ending sucks.
Still, it might be worth seeing for the brilliant performances by
all involved.
Eric Lurio
|
