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July 10, 2005
RUTHERFORD ON FILM: 'Dark Water': Leaky Ceilings Transforms Into Moldy, Supernatural Thriller in Same Vein as 'The Ring' and 'Sixth Sense'
by Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Columnist
Huntington (HNN) – As a child, what would you have named as your greatest fear? Monsters, the dark or losing your parents?
Spinning "little girl lost" anxieties within an eerie high rise allows Brazilian director Walter ("The Motorcycle Diaries") Salles to create creepy cumulous clouds of the supernatural surrounding a standard man and wife custody battle.
Economically challenged Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) and her daughter (Ariel Gade) move into a rundown but livable ten–story apartment building on Roosevelt Island in the East River where Manhattan is close by subway but the rents are much more palatable. The worn–down building has a hidden history that slyly entices you into a dark whirlpool of questionable events that quickly sucks you onto a bobbling log swirling down a steam with whitewater under toes. Mom's frequent migraines and nightmares delicately slide the sanity option into the mix.
Having successfully planted the parental tightrope elements, the director next personalizes the building with its clunky, bumpy, mind–of–its–own elevator and a leaky ceiling stain that more resembles a moldy purple bruise draining infected pus.
Thus, within less than half an hour, "Dark Water" has relentlessly teased viewers into a quagmire of potential outcomes all of which sustain the rumbles of approaching thunder, the methodic ticks of pelting hailstones, and the hopeless feel of drifting on a raft in mid ocean.
Although "The Ring" or "Sixth Sense" toyed similarly with viewers, "Dark Water" engineers its own tidal waves. The constant downpours assist with the dreariness, but like the regularity of a dripping I.V. the ominous coincidences mount and mount until they crash with the daunting force of a spillway at a dam. (Or if that sounds too hokey, it could be the creeping inevitability of a toilet water level slowly mounting until gushing forth with the vengeance of an uncontrollable storm.)
Connelly's mom has a jittery, controlled hysteria and nurturing quality which works the premise to overflowing intensity. Her on screen daughter, Gade has a wispy, calculated freshness that allows her to be a giddy, scared 'little girl' and a grade schooler slipping off stress–out mountain. Salles perks a beaming happiness when finding a Miss Spidey backpack, a gleeful 'hi' to new schoolmates, or smiling at a bedtime story in mom's arms, yet each of those moments of normalcy melts when she utters an anguished, haunting "she's lost her mommy" line of dialogue.
Yes, I've purposefully daintily dance around potential spoilers, hopefully, whetting your appetite for a haunting urban shower of splendid suspense.
Although 'tent poles.' 'events,' 'remakes' and 'sequels' have dominated the summer, "Dark Water" should receive moderately strong word of mouth. You may guess a portion of the outcome depending on your cinematic mathematics IQ, but likely you'll not unravel the entire, spooky algebra formula.
