by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
To quote Johnny Caspar, it's all about ethics. If you're an ethical movie reviewer, you don't give away secrets about movies, you don't spoil the plot for others, you don't say grandly effusive things about wretched movies. (If you're an unethical movie reviewer, of course, you get to see your name plastered on newspaper advertisements.) If you can't trust your friendly neighborhood movie reviewer, who can you trust? Otherwise, "then you're back with anarchy, right back in the jungle."
So, no, I won't tell you the secret of The Sixth Sense, even though I would like to. I will tell you that I figured it out early on, and that I think you'll enjoy the movie a lot more if you don't try to figure it out for yourself. The real question about The Sixth Sense is not about the secret, not really, but about whether the movie is worth seeing if you know the secret. Three of the best secretive movies of recent years -- The Usual Suspects, Seven, and The Crying Game -- still hold up after repeated viewings, mostly on the strength of the performances and the script. On the other hand, once Michael Douglas's The Game ends, there isn't much point in going back to the rental counter for another look. The quality of the movie is more important than the quality of the secret.
The Sixth Sense is a quality movie because of the quality performances of Bruce Willis and young Haley Joel Osment. Willis plays a Philadelphia child psychologist, dedicated to his work. The dedication is tested when a former patient breaks into his house and shoots him before committing suicide. A year later, Willis finds young Cole Sear (Osment), exhibiting some of the same symptoms as his previous patient.
Apart from an early scene where Willis engages in some Dr. Seuss-style banter (reminiscient of his old David Addison role on Moonlighting) with Olivia Williams, Willis operates through the movie in Sincere Mode. The beautifully counterpointed script has him doing one of two things: he's either in session with Cole, or trying to make up with Williams (Rushmore), who has been depressed and distant ever since the shooting. Willis in Sincere Mode is usually a bad sign -- The Jackal springs to mind -- but, fortunately, Sincere Mode in The Sixth Sense contains a lot of vulnerability that leads us to some very poignant scenes.
Most of those scenes are with Osment, an 11-year-old actor who's getting rave reviews for his performance, not to mention the early lead in the Best Supporting Actor race. (He's in Sincere Mode too -- in fact, the whole movie is so sincere it should be expecting a visit from the Great Pumpkin.) Osment has to convince us about halfway through the movie that he "sees dead people" -- a tough job, considering that we haven't seen any of the dead people he sees, not to speak of, anyway. But, of course, we believe him, because we've seen him stopped, time and again, by some nameless fear that we can't see. Later, we get to see a lot more of these ghosts and understand what is scaring Osment so badly, but his performance does an excellent job of conveying the unseen terrors that make the movie work.
How good is Osment? I don't want to throw on superlatives here (The Sixth Sense is kind enough to have a character that's a spoiled brat child actor, probably as an object lesson) because we all know what happens to child actors who get too many superlatives too soon. I would, however, like to take this opportunity to mention (in case Osment's agent is reading this) that there's a book out there by Orson Scott Card called Lost Boys that I've always wanted to see be made into a movie, and that requires a young child to play a character who may be in touch with the supernatural. (I still think that Jake Lloyd is a better fit for Ender's Game, another Card novel that requires a young protagonist.)
Add to these two great performances a great job of writing and directing (and acting, in a brief scene) by M. Night Shyamalan, the atmospheric look of Philadelphia in fall, and good supporting work by Olivia Williams and Toni Colette, and you've got a very good movie, one that's worth seeing again, even if you know the secret.
Grade: A-
-- Curtis D. Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
Movie Reviews: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Curtis+Edmonds
"So how does a conservative movie reviewer, who doesn't want to spoil the movie, write a review? The same way he takes the lamb chop from rottweiller -- carefully. Another way is to fill two-thirds of the column with irrelevant woolgathering about other topics so that you only have room for a paragraph for the real review." -- Jonah Goldberg
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