Dark Water

Two stars, out of four. It's by the same guy that wrote "The Ring", so I was expecting a strange movie, and that's what I got. Actually, the movie does have similar plot elements...a psychotic female lead role, a creepy dead girl. I did enjoy the movie, actually, I think it was well directed and filmed. It's just that they didn't have much to work with in the first place, because the plot is kind of weak and fairly predictable for the most part. A brief synopsis: A woman and her young daughter move into a rundown apartment building on Roosevelt Island near Manhattan. The woman is having a custody battle with her ex-husband. Dark-colored water (hence the title) begins to leak into her apartment through the ceiling, but the room above is uninhabited. Also, her daughter begins to have an imaginary friend that's rather creepy: the ghost of a little girl that used to live in the building.
One thing I didn't like is that it left a few questions unanswered. Such as, was the dead girl behind the backpack appearing in random places, and making the dark water leak everywhere or was it those boys who may or may not have been payed by the woman's ex to drive her to insane behavior so that he can get custody of the daughter? And if it was the girl, then what were they doing with the husband in the bar next door after harassing his ex-wife?
Two, the ending was a bit too clean and sappy. In "The Ring", the ending was just plain stupid (make a copy of the tape and pass it on, please...). This one wasn't as bad, but still could have been improved upon. Ideally, in this sort of movie, a bittersweet ending is best. It could have ended with the scene of the little girl crying and then closing the door (you'll know what I'm talking about if you see it). It was so perfect that I was expecting it to end right there. But no, they had to add the sappy part.
Anyways, this is an attempt at a new blog. I'll post more reviews when I see more movies, though, I will post some for some I've seen recently, i.e. Star Wars Episode III, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Dark Water