THE WATER MAN (2020) - REVIEW
AND CRITICS
The Water Man is a 2020
American drama film directed by David Yellow, in his feature directorial debut,
from a screenplay by Emma Needell. It stars Oyelowo, Rosario Dawson, Lonnie
Chavis, Amiah Miller, Alfred Molina and Maria Bello. Oprah Winfrey serves as an
executive producer via her Harpo Films banner.
In the movie, Mary (Rosario
Dawson, saintly) has been diagnosed with leukemia, and her husband, Amos
(Oyelowo, playing a more imperfect character), probably didn’t help matters by
moving the family to Pine Mills, Ore — at least not until
Gunner begins to hear stories of the Water Man, a local bogeyman with
mysterious healing powers. Whereas the other kids Gunner’s age seem to be
genuinely scared of meeting this notorious spirit, rumors that the Water Man
might be reanimating dead critters in the forest gives Gunner an idea: If he
can be courageous enough to find the ghoul, surely he will agree to extend Mary’s
life.
For Critics, On Rotten
Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews and no
critical consensus yet. One of the good critics is the fact that he did a
fairly effective job of misleading them, using viewers’ active engagement to
build the Water Man into something larger in their imagination than he plans to
deliver. Oyelowo proves himself to be a sure hand behind the camera,
confidently steering us through familiar motions, gracing his film with a grand
sense of scale despite its intimate focus. The “Water Man”does
a better job of it, using Mary’s illness not as an excuse to emotionally
manipulate audiences, but as the starting point for post-screening
conversations between parents and their children about what death means, and
why it doesn’t have to be frightening.
The bad criticism for this
family adventure film is that “The Water Man” lacks those projects’ sense of atmosphere.
It’s over-lit, more like a sitcom than a thriller, and apart from the two kids —
who are both terrific, with bright futures ahead — the performances are surprisingly
one-dimensional (like Maria Bello as a concerned local cop) considering that the
director hails from an acting background. But Oyelowo has kids of his own and doesn’t
seem especially worried what adults might think. Under the guise of feeding children’s
nightmares, he’s giving them something to dream about. Though Oyelowo's
direction is decent, the story never takes you to that special place and the
son's venture into the forest rarely feels adventurous.