The kingdom If you dont have

The kingdom

If you dont have at least some glimmer of humanity to the kingdom story, audiences wont leave the theater with that all-important, post-fade-to-black sense of uplift and your film wont make any money. Meet Dahlia Williams Jennifer Connelly. Haunted by the death of her abusive mother, and bruised and battered by her pending divorce to Kyle Dougray Scott, she is hoping to start a new life with her five-year-old daughter Ceci Ariel Gade. Unfortunately, apartment space for lower-class divorcees in New York is hard to come by, so Dahlia grabs the only rental she can find in a dilapidated old residential complex. Soon persistent leads of dark water, mysterious noises and ominous sightings begin to plague the family. Growing obsessed, Dahlia begins to piece together the murderous past of the abandoned complex. But is Dahlia seeing ghosts of past residents, or is she just going crazy? I had two major problems with Dark Water. The first is that however well-acted and competently directed by Brazilian Walter Salles, making his American feature film debut the narrative is dramatically inert. Im all for atmosphere and a slow build-up, and I admire the film for taking its time to establish place and character, but after nearly 75 minutes of wound-up tension, the release had better be good or disappointment is inevitable. Unfortunately, we dont get much in the way of a satisfying reveal in Dark Water. Most problematic is that Dahlias backstory is far too thinly sketched to have much impact, so it becomes almost impossible to understand her motives. Connelly is also a bit too subdued here though a fine actress, she underplays Dahlias growing madness almost to the point of obfuscation. This lady is so damn depressed and we never know why I just wanted to give her a bottle of sleeping pills so the movie would end already. But my biggest gripe is the derivative iconography of all of these Japanese horror remakes. Once youve seen one creepy mute kid in the hallway, or an overflowing bathtub filled with ghost hair, youve seen them all. I also hark back to a 1979 film called The Changeling. This underrated little gem starred George C. Scott as a widower who, after being visited by the apparition of a dead boy, must work to solve his murder and release his tortured spirit. If that plot sounds vaguely familiar, it is because it seems like The Ring and The Grudge and Dark Water all ripped it off. Im only inclined to give Dark Water a barely passable grade because diehard genre fans may still the kingdom to give it a rent based on pure atmosphere alone. But while this stuff may have been creepy once, or even twice, by the time we get to the climax of Dark Water, it is almost impossible to imagine that the filmmakers actually believed wed fall for it again. Dark Water was released in both the theatrical PG-13 and an Unrated version on standard-def DVD, but alas we only get the 105-minute theatrical cut here. Truth be told, the Unrated version was hardly any scarier, but still this is Blu-ray, and we should get the coolest version of the flick available. That said, this is a very solid 35:1 widescreen, 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer.