'Dark Water': Head games make it more than just ghost story
by Bob Longino
Like its sister ghost story "The Ring," the little-girl-lost "Dark Water" originates from Japan and involves an overly demanding specter, creepy moments and a heck of a lot of H2O. What sets "Water," starring Jennifer Connelly as a mom in a stare-down with a girl ghost, apart probably won't impress the legion of "Ring" fans. The latter film emphasized a dead little wench climbing out of a well, through a TV and into the personal domains of about-to-be victims. "Dark Water," a sometimes equally impressive film but one challenged by following in "Ring's" shadow, is more interested in what's going on inside Connelly's head.
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Dahlia Williams is determined to put her relationship with her estranged husband behind her and devote herself to raising her 5-year-old daughter Ceci. But mysterious noises from the empty apartment upstairs and a persistent leak of dark water in the bedroom ceiling make her imagination run wild.
Touchstone Pictures
'Dark Water'
Director: Walter Salles
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite
Run time: 105 minutes
Release date: July 8, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, frightening sequences, disturbing images and brief language.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B-
"As much a psychological drama as it is a ghost story. The two mix and mingle till, in a big splash of water, they become one."
Middletown Journal: B+
"... chillingly sets a mood of unease and uncertainty."
The Palm Beach Post: C
"There are direct similarities between The Ring and Dark Water. Both deal with the effects of emotional scars, the potential death of a young child and links with ghostly apparitions. Oh, and they both want to scare the heck out of us."
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