Movie Haiku - Dark Water

www.darkwatermovie.com


Dir: Walter Salles


Cast: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott


Drips from the ceiling

who's running around upstairs?

what's the accent, Pete?


There should be a law in Hollywood that states that studios are not allowed to remake a film until at least ten years have passed since the original film's release. But there isn't... so with Asian ghost stories being in vogue a few years ago all the big studios thought it would be a great money making exercise to remake the best of them for the dumb American film-going public (sweeping generalisation) who won't watch subtitled movies. After the moderate successes of The Ring and The Grudge we now have Dark Water, a remake of the eerie Japanese shocker from Hideo Nakata who was also responsible for the original Ring. The story sees Dahlia (Connelly) and her young daughter Ceci (Ariel Gade) move into a run-down apartment without noticing the sinister stain on the bedroom ceiling which soon starts dripping dirty water onto the floor below. Dahlia is stressed out as it is, caught in a legal battle with her ex-husband (Scott) and trying to cope with Ceci and her new imaginary friend, so the last thing she needs is a leaking roof - and landlord Murray (Reilly) is too busy gambling whilst Veeck the janitor (Pete Postlethwaite) is just a grumpy workshy jobsworth. She turns to a lawyer (Roth) for help and together they uncover the dark secret of the family who lived in the flat above. The pedigree for this remake of Dark Water looks promising on paper, with its impressive cast and Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) directing. Unfortunately they manage to drop the ball completely on this one, completely botching the main scenes of shock and suspense which made the Japanese version so effective. There's just no sense of terror in this film whatsoever. It's such a shame as Salles has copied the production design - all browns, yellows and greens, with constant falling rain and the creepy apartment block - from the original perfectly. Connelly - like Naomi Watts in The Ring - does the glamorous actress in an unglamorous single mother role very well, and both Reilly and Roth are as reliable as always. However, Gade is no Dakota Fanning and doesn't really convince as the girl who can see ghosts, and Pete Postlethwaite has the most unconvincing foreign accent since Don Cheadle went cockney in Ocean's Eleven. I still have no idea what nationality he was supposed to be! Despite retaining the original's rather downbeat ending this new version of Dark Water is not a patch on the Japanese version (no pun intended), and that's the movie you should really be seeking out, not this dull scare-free copy.

soulmining rating: **