Dark Water (Film Water)

2005 Buena Vista Pictures
Directed by: Walter Salles; Written by: Rafael Yglesias
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite, and Camryn Manheim
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 105 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Dahlia...yes, Dahlia is fighting a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband. She takes her young daughter to an often forgotten and strangely isolated part of Manhattan, Roosevelt Island. Unfortunately, a dilapidated apartment in this claustrophobic and rainy block is all she can afford. But the cramped dirtiness of the apartment isn't the major issue...it's more the constant leaks coming down from the ceiling, the fact that the dangerous roof is open when it should be locked, and the sense that the place just might be haunted. Before she knows it, Dahlia, whose childhood was anything but idyllic, is sleeping too late, losing time, and seeing things. Can Dahlia not only solve the mystery of her building, but maintain her sanity before she loses partial custody of her daughter?
Within the first few minutes of 2005's Dark Water, as Dahlia, played with intensity by Jennifer Connelly, rides the tram from greater Manhattan through the fog and rain over the East River to Roosevelt Island, I pointed at the screen and said, "Hey, I've been on that tram!" Indeed, I rode on that very tram to Roosevelt Island with my now ex-wife and our child, who I now split custody of, through the rain and fog, and walked by the very apartment bloc this film is mostly set in, so to say this film hit close to home would be an understatement. Roosevelt Island is a strange place, somewhere one can somehow get away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of Manhattan, and yet also somewhere strangely and uniquely claustrophobic, as different as it feels from the rest of the city. Dark Water director, Walter Salles, seems content to mostly show Jennifer Connelly looking wistfully out her apartment at the rain on that island for the entire first hour of this film, and writer, Rafael Yglesias, does little to propel a functional narrative forward. In this first hour, I often found myself struggling to engage with the film, despite Connelly's solid performance and...uh...screen presence.
Strangely enough, it's the surprisingly emotional custody battle that eventually drew me into the film, far from the supernatural, where Salles feels far more comfortable. In this domestic part of the story, Dougray Scott puts in great work in a surprisingly meaty role that would generally be thankless. In most films, Scott's ex-husband character would simply be an obstacle, but here he is a present and caring father who is genuinely scared for the safety of his daughter and would rather have peace with his ex if she would just stop dozing off and having visions of dead people. All of sudden, a reliably incredible Tim Roth drops into the film as the only lawyer Connelly can afford--maybe because he works out of his car--and again, his heavy lifting comes in dramatic scenes far from the supernatural. In fact, it almost feels like Dark Water is embarrassed about its supernatural elements, and thus saves most of them for a sort of surprise postscript last act, which cribs heavily from The Ring, albeit slightly less sinister. The late film events also strangely predict the Elisa Lam mystery that occurred eight years later, a disturbing, dream-haunting incident I wish I'd never heard of.
The result is a strange film that--excuse the pun--treads water for much of its runtime before suddenly becoming an effective family drama with great acting for about 20 minutes, then an okay supernatural horror film for its last 20. I may watch Dark Water again simply to see that weird place in New York my once unbroken family once visited, and get a little teary-eyed (if I still physically had the ability to cry) when Dougray Scott does, but otherwise this is merely a mediocre film, and if I'd never had such a memorable visit to its filming location, would likely never revisit again..