Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Jennifer Connelly is on in Dark Water, give it a chance. | Content
 | DARK WATER is the American remake of the Japanese
movie of the same name. I also agree with another reviewer,
this is a thriller not a horror movie. Do not let
that deter, this is a pretty intelligent thriller bundled
as a drama. Speaking of that then there is no
better dramatic actress right now than Jennifer
Connelly. Even snobbish critics of this movie can't slam
her performance in this, she is very , very good.
Connelly is become a master of this sort of thing, letting
her emotions speak for itself and guide the movie into
a dark atmosphere, something she's done quite well in
her work (A Beautiful Mind).
I liked the movie overall, and I have not seen the Japanese
movie, but that's a good thing since people won't
be so conceited in comparing both. That said it was much
better than "The Grudge" with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That
movie was horribly directed, edited and acted.
This movie was not, it's got a decent cast including
Charles Nelson Reilly.
|
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Dark Water | Content
| Dark Water (2005) Touchstone Pictures.
Crew
Directed by: Walter Salles
Written by: Rafael Yglesias
Produced by: Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Bill Mechanic
Cinematography by: Affonso Beato
Adapted From a Novel by: KĂ´ji Suzuki
Cast
Jennifer Connelly: Dahlia
John C. Reilly: Mr. Murray
Tim Roth: Jeff Platzer
Ariel Gade: Ceci
Pete Postlethwaite: Veeck
Camryn Manheim: Teacher
Plot
I'm not going to waste your time with telling you the whole story. This woman, Dahlia, is a single mother fighting for custody of her daughter, Ceci. They both are living in the big apple and dahlia is trying to prove that she can take care of her child and to win custody from her ex-husband, Jeff (Tim Roth). She decides to get a home which means a crappy (and I mean the crappiest apartment I've seen) apartment with a lying realitor trying to sell it to her (John C. Reilly) and a creepy custion (Pete Postlethwaite). Things go on at the apartment that just confuse you. She sees a young child that looks like it's abandoned (which might explain her childhood) and ghosts that come in the form of dirty water. The mystery is still lingering. Could ghosts be the cause of this so called "Dark Water" or is it just-gasp!-BAD PLUMMING?! Bum Bum Bum! Beware this movie because it may just give you nightmares (or better yet, a splitting headache).
Trivia
You want some trivia about this movie? Okay. Here ya go! This movie sucked so bad that it made Mariah Carrey's "Glitter" look like "Cabaret."
If You Liked This Movie,
You're stupid! By the way, see "The Ring" because it is much better. If you want to see this movie in the news or media, go to The Golden Raspberry Awards®. The awards it will win are pretty much all of them. This movie is crap.
(...) |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | It Was Good. Really. | Content
| This movie was a good film overall, but the "false" advertisement on the theatrical trailer makes it not fun to watch. The story is the same as described: a water leak that leads to terrifying situations. But this is more of a Drama than a horror. I thought it was good-for a drama. Although it did scare me at some times, I think the correct genre for this would Thriller/Drama. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Some Mysteries Were Never Meant To Be Solved! | Content
| Dark Water... following the trend line of The Ring(Naomi Watts) and The Grudge(Sarah Michelle Guellar). Japanese horror remakes such as this, I think are starting the PG-13 horror flicks of today... which I dislike. Although if you want to call any movie a horror movie of today... it's movies like these you should. Besides the gorey rated R movies such as Land of the Dead, or The Devil's Rejects.
Dark Water isn't that scary... however it does have a good creepy feeling throughout the entire scenes within the apartment building. For a ghost movie, like the last two remakes... Dark Water takes a more softer turn, especialy in the end. I was shocked in the end... to see what Connelly had to do to stop that ghost from haunting her and her daughter. Overall... Dark Water out beats Cursed(Christina Ricci), Boogeyman(Barry Watson), Hide and Seek(Robert De Niro), White Noise(Michael Keaton), and Amityville Horror(Ryan Reynolds). Which says a lot for horror movies in the year 2005. In a lot of ways, it's even better than Ring Two(Naomi Watts).
I honestly never noticed or watched Jennifer Connelly that close... now one of my favorite actresses after watching this. She was great in A Beautiful Mind(Russell Crowe), and House of Sand and Fog(Ben Kingsley)... even winning an award. She just plays such a mother in Dark Water, it's really lovely to see. Connelly never wanted to do a horror movie in her career... for choosing to do Dark Water, she succeeded.
John C. Reilly... a great actor for playing those silly, dumb founded roles. Boogies Nights(Mark Wahlberg), What's Eating Gilbert Grape(Johnny Depp) are just a few I like with him. As fun and nice as Reilly sounds in this movie... he really puts Connelly through hell with her haunted leaking pricey apartment.
Pete Postlethwaite... a funny actor in his littlest parts. Alien 3(Sigourney Weaver), and Jurassic Park II(Jeff Goldblum) are a few you should check him out in. As the man who is lazy about fixing Connelly's ceiling and changing locks on the apartment above... I'd be scared to have him awake alnight when I sleep.
Tim Roth has seen better days, like in Pulp Fiction(John Travolta). As Connelly's only friend and new lawyer... he really gives a strong friendly performance to watch.
I can't give Dark Water 5 stars because it wasn't as scary as I would've loved for it to be. If you want to see Jennifer Connelly's talent, or to see one of the better thrillers of today... then these are the best reasons for you to watch Dark Water.
I can't wait to see The Skeleton Key(Kate Hudson)... the fourth Japanese horror remake following this awesome tradition. To see, The Eye remake next year! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 27, 2005 | | Summary | Style over Substance | Content
| Being unfamiliar with the work and adaptations of Hideo Nakata and Koji Suzuki, I went into "Dark Water" with no preconceptions about style, form, or subject matter, other than that this was a horror picture whose plot seemed to centre around water. A lot of it.
And it does. The drains really do matter, and poor Dahlia (played with a fierce quietness by Jennifer Connelly) and her darling little daughter Ceci (made so sweet it's creepy by astonishing newcomer Ariel Gade) learn this quickly enough when they are forced to relocate from "the City" to Roosevelt Island, a dreary industrial place that the sleazy but quick-on-his-feet management agent Mr. Murray describes as a "utopia" - ironically, without a hint of irony. Ceci, as all horror-movie children do, has a "bad feeling" about the place and is reluctant to move in, at first. Nobody could blame her: the lobby is run-down, flecked with mildew, and lit in shades of flickering fluorescent green that immediately inspire dread in the viewer, though not as much as the dour superintendent Veeck (played with creepy perfection by Peter Postlethwaite, who should patent roles like this), and not nearly so much as that festering muddy-brown water stain on the bedroom ceiling.
But Dahlia is separated from her husband and needs an affordable place to call home to keep custody of her daughter, and this apartment is definitely affordable, and Ceci has rather inexplicably decided she loves the place. So, in the time-honored tradition of horror-movie heroines, Dahlia goes against her better judgment and moves in.
Soon enough, Bad Things Happen. The water-spot grows. Is plastered over. Grows again. Water trickles into the capricious elevator, which sometimes goes to floors it shouldn't and stops when it likes, and drips through the floors. Faucets and toilets spout ominous rust-coloured streams in pristine public schools and Dahlia's own kitchen. The ubiquitous Imaginary Friend makes appearances, whispering in the night and telling little Ceci things neither one should know about her mother and her past. She even talks to Dahlia. And it rains. A lot.
Things continue to happen, and continue to get worse, but never all at once. Director Walter Salles prefers to build an atmosphere rather than scare us out of our seats with cheap thrills, and he proves very adept at inspiring first gloom, then dread, then horror, and finally anticipation as the payoff we know must come approaches.
Unfortunately, it is here that the film stumbles. The mood up until then has been evoked perfectly, although it takes longer than it ought to; nothing much happens but tension-building until the last fifteen minutes or so of the film, and then the climax we have been waiting for since Dahlia moved in is so predictable that it disappoints. However, the suspense is kept taut till the end and the mood never falters; if it is emotional resonance, rather than cheap scares, that you're looking for, this will suit the purpose nicely. |
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