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BY PETER KEOUGH
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Regardless of how dark the water, plumbing is a source of irritation rather than horror. Walter Salles (Central do Brasil) seems an odd choice to remake this thriller by Japanese director Hideo Nakata (The Ring), and he brings to it a non-chilling, arty sensibility, mixing standard fear tactics with the more atmospheric devices of David Lynch and Roman Polanski. Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) tries to build a nest for her daughter Ceci (Ariel Gade) after a brutal custody battle by moving into a grimy flat in an East Berlin–like apartment complex on Roosevelt Island, a kind of low-rent Dakota from Rosemary’s Baby. In short order the black sludge leaking in from the apartment upstairs sends Dahlia into a flurry of flashbacks to her own troubled childhood, which seems to leak into little Ceci’s imagination as the girl takes up with an imaginary playmate. Nothing comes out in the wash as the film’s multiple endings only add to the murk. By far the scariest parts are Pete Postlethwaite as the building superintendent and Tim Roth playing the voice of reason as a lawyer. At the Flagship + Opera House + Providence Place 16 + Showcase
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