Dark Water

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. Since her very beginnings (Career Opportunities, The Rocketeer, etc. ), Jennifer Connelly showed great promise as an actress. Young and beautifull (although not in a Pamela Anderson sort of way), she stood out from the bunch but never made quite a glamorous entrance into hollywood as others recently have (Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, etc. ) Nevertheless, hardly anybody knew that she would turn out to be such a formidable actress(The house of sand and fog, a beautifull mind, etc. ) If it were not for her performance as a caring and loving mother, this movie would hardly be worth the watch. Why? Because it seems so déjà vu that its embarrassing. Lets see : 1) A middle age mom, 2) an unloved daughter that has passed away and has since used water and the forces of nature to haunt others for their attention and ultimately.. love. This story was obviously written by the same japanese writers that wrote the infamous ring movies. However, unlike the ring, which for one was original at the time of the first release, this story just seems to be not as well... scary as the other. I remember popping a video after seeing the ring and beeing strangely affected by the obviously inprobable appearance of the short film featured in the Ring movie. I will not be troubled by dark water in the same way. Aside from the obvious comparissons, most of what Dark Water has to offer stems from the awkward originality of the characters in the movie and of the actors that portray them. The casting was in my view incredible. To the credit of the writers, the characters were very well drawn out to the point where their stereotypical roles (the landlord, the superintendent, the anxious mother, the problematic child, the lawyer, etc. ) became much more a part of the movie and a lot less of the stereotype (aka you get to see the characters a lot closer than you usually due and discover their individuality in the process) Altogether the movie was alright, the plot was simply and failed to give me something special to really react to and remember this movie by. That's why I will give it a 5.5 out of ten for the writing of the characters and acting. The other 5 are left by a poor storyline that is way too reminscent of the ring and fails to engage the audience. Great acting, good script, very poor story.