The Sixth Sense Review
by John Carroll (flyers130 AT aol DOT com)October 14th, 1999
We have been very blessed this summer. It all started with Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Despite what you thought of the film, it was still a motion picture experience we will never forget. Then, we saw Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, which turned out to be better then the original. Then, we saw the end of Stanley Kubrick's great career. And in recent weeks, we have seen the Indie sensation, The Blair Witch Project and also the sharp comedy, Bowfinger. And last, but certainly not least, The Sixth Sense. It is very comparable to The Blair Witch Project in the fact that they both keep you interested until the end, and then shock you with very haunting and chilling endings. They are both great films and very worthy of their four star ratings, but I would have to give a slight edge to The Blair Witch Project, only due to the fact that Witch's characters are a little stronger and The Sixth Sense goes slightly too long, but is still great, nonetheless.
The premise is that Bruce Willis is a child psychologist in Philadelphia. The film starts with Malcolme Crowe (Bruce Willis) winning an award for his work. Crowe and his wife go to celebrate, but they are interrupted by an old patient who broke into their home, played by Donnie Wahlberg. He shoots Crowe and the film moves on to next Fall. Crowe takes a new patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who displays the same simptoms of Vincent Gray (Wahlberg). Crowe wants to help Sear, to make up for his failure with Gray.
Bruce Willis is excellent in this film. He is the prototypical Hollywood actor. He can do action, as shown in the Die Hard trilogy. And he can also do serious acting, and he displays that trait in The Sixth Sense. He is completely believable, which is needed in this sort of film. The premise not exactly something you hear about every day, so each actor had to have a sense of believability. And Willis does.
However, compared to Haley Joel Osment, Willis is trash. Osment gives a great performance as Cole Sear. He is able to display such great amounts of emotional depth despite his young age. He gives a better performance than I have seen from other veteran actors. I had heard the hype after the release of The Sixth Sense that Osment deserved an Oscar nomination. I did not believe it...Until now, that is. He got such a demanding role, and is able to outshine everyone else in the film with a terrific performance. And his career can only go up from here. Some of you may remember him as Forrest Gump Jr. from Forrest Gump.
The rest of the cast is solid and basically just feed off the performances of Osment and Willis. The reason this film is so good is that it does not burden you with too many subplots. The main plot is, of course, trying to solve the mystery of what is bothering Cole. The only other subplots are the relationship between Malcome and his wife, and the relationship between Cole and his mother. It is simple, straightforward, despite being so complex and interesting.
Overall, The Sixth Sense is this summer's must-see. Just like The Blair Witch Project it is cheap and interesting. Also like The Blair Witch Project it is not as scary as you may think, but character interaction and depth make up for it in both cases. Expect to see Haley Joel Osment and maybe even Bruce Willis at the Oscars. The only thing holding those two men (and children) from making acceptance speeches is their summer release. But, their performances are so strong the voting committee should still be thinking about them come Oscar Season. And when you start talking Oscars, you know you have just seen a good film.
Four Stars Out of Four Stars
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