"DARK WATER"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Jennifer Connelly as DAHLIA John C. Reilly as MR. MURRAY Tim Roth as JEFF PLATZER Dougray Scott as KYLE Pete Postlethwaite as VEECK Camryn Manheim as TEACHER Ariel Gade as CECI Unrated Studio: Touchstone Directed by: Walter Salles Back to DVD Review Home |  |
I’m not a huge fan of obligatory “unrated” DVDs. Sometimes, they actually deliver something more than the standard PG-13 cut of the film. However, all too often, they are used as a cheap marketing ploy and only reveal a lackluster scene re-inserted into the film.
The latter is the case with the unrated DVD or “Dark Water.” There are a couple extra scenes in the film, but really nothing happens in them that’s worth keeping. There’s nothing overtly scary, and there’s no greater gore or violence. They make the movie unrated in name only, not by showing something that was too much for the original rating.
Ultimately, these extra scenes were superfluous to the film itself, and I can see why they were removed for the theatrical cut.
“Dark Water” isn’t terrible, but it lacks the punch and power of other Japanese horror films remade for the American audience. The movie tells the story of a woman named Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) in the middle of a bitter divorce. She’s got partial custody of her daughter Ceci (Ariel Gade) and has found a new apartment just outside of Manhattan.
Dahlia tries to pay the rent with a rocky job and keep her daughter in school nearby. However, strange things are happening in the apartment, including harassment by local punks and dark, dingy water dripping in from her ceiling. There’s hints that a child is missing, and we feel the presence of a ghost. This spirit is connecting with Ceci, putting her in danger. Unfortunately, Dahlia thinks she’s going insane rather than believing the signs.
The biggest problem with “Dark Water” is that it puts too much on the shoulder’s of Jennifer Connelly. She’s a good actress and very easy on the eyes, but there’s too much of her moping and worrying. Stepping back from the film, I can’t blame her on-screen husband for wanting her committed. She’s a real piece of work. Heck, I would have kicked her out years ago if I were her husband!
“Dark Water” tries to have a slow build of suspense and terror, but it gets a little too tedious. The film is dark and dismal from the beginning, leaving nowhere to go with the atmosphere and feel.
There are some nice performances by John C. Reilly as the smarmy superintendent, Pete Postlethwaite as the creepy maintenance guy and Tim Roth as the helpful but guarded lawyer. But their characters are used as discarded second fiddles to Connelly. It would have been better to have opened up the story a bit and given the girl a rest.
The DVD comes with extra deleted scenes and a couple behind-the-scenes featurettes. Most of these are pretty standard. There is a section that analyzes three different sequences and shows nice detail in how they are crafted. However, the most interesting one is “The Sound of Terror,” which focuses on the sound design of the film.
Clearly, sound was important to this film, but you really can only experience that to its full potential if you saw it in a THX-certified theatre or have a kick-ass home theatre system. This disc comes with an enhanced home theatre mix, but this really is missed for those of us watching it on a box across the room without stereo hook-ups.
“Dark Water” is worth a rental, but it’s nowhere near as slick as “The Grudge” or “The Ring.” Still, it’s far and gone better than “The Ring Two.”
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Enhanced home theatre audio mix. Widescreen (2.35:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French and Spanish subtitles. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
