A sensible choice

"The Sixth Sense"
Overall Rating: ****



Sometimes, a movie turns out to be a pleasant surprise. I'd wanted to see "The Mystery Men" or "The Thomas Crown Affair" this weekend, but instead, wound up seeing "The Sixth Sense"--which I'd felt ambivalent about. "The Sixth Sense" is easily among the best films of the summer.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is an acclaimed child psychologist. Unfortunately, he isn't perfect, and he gets a large dose of humility when Vincent Gray (Donnie Wahlberg)--a former patient of Crowe's, who is now grown up--breaks into his house, and shoots him before committing suicide. In the aftermath of the shooting, Crowe's marriage is more strained than ever. However, there are still children who need help--like Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), whose case is eerily like Gray's.

M. Night Shyamalan--who wrote and directed the film (in addition to playing the supporting role of Dr. Hill) has a masterpiece in "The Sixth Sense." The film starts off slowly, but this isn't too bad, because the main characters are nice people, and simple curiosity made me wonder what would happen to them. The second half picks up very well, and the end caught me by surprise; however, all the elements are there, so the surprise didn't blindside me. It was exceedingly difficult for Shyamalan to set up the story so the clues are there but not obvious. My advice to anyone seeing this film is to be patient: the last ten minutes make the whole thing worthwhile. The end is beautiful--with an elegant symmetry that most films lack.

Part of the reason the film works so well is that the main characters are nice, interesting people. While the supporting cast is very good, the lead actors are excellent. Bruce Willis captures his character's compassion and sensitivity--it's no stretch to believe his character would be a good child therapist. More amazing is Haley Joel Osment. His character's ordeals would challenge an adult actor--a child actor doing well in the role boggles the mind.

Mostly, the problems with "The Sixth Sense" are minor. The film starts slowly, but picks up. The camera shakes a little too much here and there (though after "The Blair Witch Project," I just might be too sensitive to that). Some elements relating to the supernatural world are confusing--such as a strange costume change, or a case where a character sees a phenomenon, but misses a similar phenomenon in another scene. These problems don't detract too much from the film as a whole. The title may be a problem, giving away the supernatural nature of the story. The worst problem isn't really in the movie itself, but the promotion. For one thing, TV commercials and previews tell what Cole's secret is (and I don't want to say any more about it, just in case you've been lucky enough to miss this publicity). The film is also being marketed as an outright horror film. This may not be exclusively the fault of the promoters, since Shyamalan accentuates all the scary scenes and gore that the film has (with generally good results, I'd add); but I'd describe the film as more of a supernatural drama with some scary moments.

I'd have reservations about taking children to see "The Sixth Sense." There are several scenes that are pretty scary. The biggest concern for children are several gross scenes: mostly shots of very gory dead bodies; while these are a credit to the film's makeup artists, these are also why a PG-13 rating is reasonable. On screen violence is limited, as is the sexual content. Two other points of concern may be one nude shot--through a shower door and from behind--and a scene where a character urinates on screen (again, filmed from behind--the real focus is something else). There is also some bad language--though Cole reprimands a person for "using the `s' word," somewhat mitigating the strong language.

"The Sixth Sense" is very reminiscent of "Ghost" in it's feel, but it's a truly original film. In a like manner, "The Sixth Sense" is a much better film than I expected; "The Sixth Sense" is the unexpected treat of the summer.

Title: "The Sixth Sense"
Release date: August 6, 1999

MPAA rating: PG-13
Overall rating: ****

Aprox. run time: 107 min.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Writer: M. Night Shyamalan
Stars: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment

Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Mansion/7045/6thSense.htm
Added to blog site: 8/4/09