‘The Water Man’ review; Dir David Oyelowo (2020) [TIFF 2020]

Family friendly movies can sometimes be tough to pull off. Aim at the very young audience members and you alienate the adults that have to take them to the cinema – aim it too too high and you stand a good chance of either boring them senseless or scaring the living daylights out of them. With David Oyelowo’s impressive directorial debut, he sets his sights firmly on the slightly older kids, and largely accomplishes what he sets out to do in a rather Spielbergian adventure that will definitely pull at your heartstrings.

Lonnie Chavis is Gunner, a young boy who spends a considerable amount of time alone immersed in books and drawing. His father Amos (Oyelowo), we learn, has been largely absent, working overseas. most recently Japan, while his mother (Rosario Dawson) stays at home to encourage his hobbies and educational pursuits. His mother, though, is battling an illness, and when things take a turn for the worse, he throws himself even more into reading – science text books and medicine journals specifically to see if he can find a cure to fix his beloved parent. Amos is back in town through all of this, but young Gunner struggles to connect with his father and soon he finds himself running from home with a young girl named Jo (Amiah Miller), in search of a mystical figure, known only as ‘The Water Man’, who might just hold the key to Gunner’s mother’s cure.

Oyelowo holds great acclaim as an actor with roles in the likes of Selma, A United Kingdom and Queen Of Katwe amongst his very best work. The Water Man is a left-field choice for a debut behind the camera, but a welcomed one. It is clear where his inspiration has come from for The Water Man; everything from E.T. lunchboxes to a Drew Struzan-like one-sheet promotional poster for the film point to the ’80s family classics from the likes of Spielberg and Zemeckis, but there’s also a wonderful uniqueness to his debut work, too.

Chavis is excellent as the young protagonist, while Miller as tearaway Jo is also superb. Oyelowo fills supporting roles with Rosario Dawson as Gunner’s illness-stricken, loving mother, while Alfred Molina shows up as the hermit-like local with all the knowledge of the legend of The Water Man who might just exist. It has a Big Fish feel too it, crossed with Stand By Me and, of course, the aforementioned E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial, though in a slightly looser form.

Oyelowo, as director, gets the tone spot-on, the audience willing on Gunner on his journey of hope. There are laughs in the right places, thrills and spills – though definitely targeted toward the older audience members in that ‘family’ bracket. The final scenes are particularly frightening. There are also many tender moments that will definitely get you reaching for the hankies, Emma Needell’s exceptional script, exploring family bonds, the threat of loss and the realisation when you are younger that your parents are not immortal.

It doesn’t use any fancy special effects, though there is some wonderful use of traditional animation. I really this film. The ending slightly let down proceedings for me and I was left a little underwhelmed. That said, it didn’t ruin the enjoyment of the rest of the film and I walked away fulfilled.

It might not be for the really young audience but for the 8-10 year olds-plus, it’s absolutely perfect. A dramatic, throwback to the eighties films that the filmmakers clearly love, and if you too grew up on the likes of The Goonies, Explorers and Flight Of The Navigator, to name just a few, I think you’ll dig it as much as the kids, too.