The Sixth Sense Review
by Bill Chambers (wchamber AT netcom DOT ca)August 3rd, 1999
THE SIXTH SENSE *** (out of four)
-a review by Bill Chambers ([email protected])
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starring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
You’ve seen this moment before, recently: a particularly troubled character senses danger of the paranormal kind when the room temperature inexplicably plummets to below freezing. The difference is that when it happens to Lili Taylor’s Nell in The Haunting, we don’t care. The hero of The Sixth Sense, a young boy named Cole, is a rich creation, and we wish nothing more than for the ghosts who haunt him to take a hike.
The seasons have changed since an ex-patient shot jaded child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Willis) in the comfort of his own bedroom. Desperate to get his career back on track, even at the expense of his crumbling marriage (to Williams, of Rushmore), Malcolm councils the deeply troubled Cole (Osment). The preteen displays all the quirks of Malcolm’s would-be killer: scars on his body; antisocial behaviour; and the reluctance to reveal a big secret. Only after Cole is locked in a closet by some bullies (and hospitalized as a result) does he divulge to Malcolm, in a spine-tingling scene, that he sees dead people walking among us, all the time.
Malcolm assumes, and given his profession, reasonably so, that Cole is schizophrenic, not psychic, but the sincerity in Cole’s anguished confession prevents the doctor from taking drastic measures. He will instead pursue the supernatural angle, becoming a kind of surrogate father to Cole (who lives with his single mother, Lynn (Collette)) in the process.
The Sixth Sense has more in common with Ghost than Poltergeist. (Though Shyamalan does, somewhat unforgiveably, crib the self-rearranging kitchen business from the latter.) It’s far more heartwarming than frightening, and the film would be none the worse for wear without its few pulp shocks. Cole attracts the dead for reasons unknown, but they’re not out to harm him, really—they just want to be heard, even if it means scaring the bejesus out of the innocent gradeschooler. Perhaps the apparitions seem more ghastly to us, at first, than they really are because we’re looking at the situation through the eyes of an eight-year-old.
That’s right: Willis, for the first time in years, gives up the spotlight to his costar. We appreciate Malcolm’s domestic dilemma, but we identify with Cole, recalling our fears of the bogeyman or the closet monster or the thing under the bed. Both actors deliver immensely likable performances, and their dynamic is manifest. Willis convinces us that he’s a doctor, something he was unable to do as a horndog shrink in the overheated Color of Night. Osment is phenomenal, a true professional who resists mugging for the camera like some child stars with too much experience in television commercials do.
The Sixth Sense (atmospherically shot by The Silence of the Lambs’ cinematographer, Tak Fujimoto) is actually a drama—its spooky, effective ad campaign is misleading. Only because I was expecting something different did I notice—rather, feel—the movie’s running time, which is just shy of two hours. The story unfurls slowly but engrossingly; its unexpected finish is definitely worth the wait. I’m not sure said big twist ending is bulletproof, but I admired its audacity.
-August, 1999
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
