Add Dark Water to the string of Japanese horror movies being remade for American audiences in the wake of the success of 2002's The Ring (not a surprise since this comes from the same author as that film). Also throw in the repetitive themes of all these remakes as this one trots out the expected supernatural child looking for closure, a reoccurring theme used to try and build suspense (this time being dripping water), and minimalist attempts at chills amongst all the mediocre "murder mystery" goings-on. And while you're at it, toss in a big slice of disappointment pie.

This is a movie that never gets rolling in the direction we expect it to, instead deciding to focus on the messy divorce between Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) and husband Kyle (Dougray Scott) which leads to her moving into a new, somewhat rundown, apartment building with her young daughter Ceci (Ariel Gade).

Dahlia (as we learn in a few mostly unneeded flashbacks) came from a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mother and has chosen to raise her daughter right, but unfortunately the apartment is all she can afford and things don't get any better when the ceiling in the bedroom starts leaking water from the apartment above.

From there we're treated to a whole bunch of minor set pieces (taps spray out rusty water at random, Ceci finds her paintbrush hand possessed during school, etc.) while scripter Rafael Yglesias tries to slowly build-up a completely predictable subplot about the fate of the young girl who lives in the apartment directly above our mother and daughter. The movie also tries to get us to wonder about Connelly's sanity while throwing in Pete Postlethwaite as a generally pointless superintendent character, which we assume is for red herring purposes as we see him looking at Ceci on a security camera with visions of child molestation in his eyes early on.

There's also a bunch of hokum about lawyer Jeff Platzer (Tim Roth), who takes on Dahlia's divorce case only to end-up being the main character to unravel the background of the family living above her apartment, which really doesn't make much sense as any lawyer who's taken on a divorce case isn't likely to go out of their way to piece together clues because his client is a little bit loopy about the goings-on in her building.

Things just aren't that interesting. That's one of the reasons Dark Water only manages to be a passable, sort of dull, and pretty unoriginal riff on Asian horror. It's almost like the makers were afraid to do anything remotely frightening with the premise and instead opted to try and give the picture mood by making the entire movie dark looking and rainy while Angelo Badalmenti's generic score plays in the background to try and creep us out. Characters drift in an out of the movie with no real purpose, the finale doesn't work at all (the fate of Connelly's character doesn't fit the tone of the film and makes her no better than her mother was), and we never get any real connection with any of the characters - we just trudge along waiting for various scenes we've seen done better in other, similar, movies.

It's too bad this didn't turn out better as the trailer (and it's annoying, yet effective, use of Gade's character singing "the itsy bitsy spider...") made this look more like a full-on supernatural horror flick rather than the Kramer Vs. Kramer divorce drama it turns out to be. The main reason people go to these types of movies is to be creeped out, and while Dark Water is competently acted and directed, it just doesn't deliver in the thrills department instead becoming a dull retread we could care less about.

And in case you're wondering, Connelly's "wet t-shirt" moment from the trailer doesn't even make this worth seeing... (Chris Hartley, 5/15/06)

Directed By: Walter Salles.
Written By: Rafael Yglesias.

Starring: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott.