Dark Water (2005, Walter Salles)

Piffle, but for awhile there, pretty damn good piffle. I've said before that one of the best kinds of horror movies are the ones where the horror could be removed from the story and still be successful, yet paradoxically, the horror is inextricably intertwined with the everyday concerns of the protagonists. (See also: Divorce-as-horror in The Brood or Fear of sex-as-horror in Cat People.) But while those two examples, IMO, are thematically rich, here we're saddled with Parent issues-as-horror, and the whole thing deflates, when it becomes clear that the parent issues are merely a pretext for ghost clichés and nothing more. But wow, what a great ride until then! Top notch cinematography by Affonso Beato (Ghost World) and great sound design by Frank Gaeta, and a cast that's, frankly, too good for this. I've never thought Jennifer Connelly was quite the actress everyone thinks she is (she was better when she was younger and heavier) but she turns in good work here, convincing as a loving mother but subtle enough to suggest she's as crazy as her ex-husband suggests. And John C. Reilly, as you've probably already read, rocks on toast. (Everything he says is dripping with subtext; so why couldn't the little girl be given the same kind of respect? Why couldn't we just read her distaste of the apartment through her face and body language, rather than her banal whining? Just asking.) Finally, I didn't know beforehand who played Connelly's lawyer; when I finally recognized him, I let out a yelp of glee. Theo, typically, has it exactly right: "[He] is the real magician, moving from flaky Alan Dershowitz figure to plausible (if not quite endorsed) romantic lead without apparently changing a thing." Not successful, but definitely worth seeing.