THE OTHERS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
CAPSULE: This is a ghost story with surprises, atmosphere,
and authentic gooseflesh. Nicole Kidman stars as an
over-protective, neurotic mother in a house that must be
kept dark to protect the children. The Channel Islands
make for a perfect dismal setting for a suspenseful
well-written ghost story. The film was written, directed,
and even scored by Chilean-born Alejandro Amenabar.
Rating: 7 (0 to 10), +2 (-4 to +4). This review written
with intent avoiding spoilers; in general it is recommended
that the viewer avoid reading too much about the film before
seeing it.
It is difficult to think of something new to do with a ghost story. Just creating atmosphere is really not enough. Once the ghosts start throwing things around and doing physical damage, as they did in POLTERGEIST, a ghost story no longer is a ghost story as much as it is a monster movie. On the other hand just leaving around clues that something from beyond is around, maybe the sound of a woman crying or bloody footprints on the carpet, very quickly becomes tiresome. Even some of the best ghost stories diversify. They function as a ghost story and something else. Frequently it is a ghost story and a simple murder mystery as was done with THE UNINVITED, THE CHANGELING, and THE LADY IN WHITE. WHAT LIES BENEATH was a ghost story that turned into a murder mystery that turned into a stalker movie. (And none of them was very good.) Some of the best just mix character portraits with ghost story. THE INNOCENTS and the original THE HAUNTING do that nicely. Into the latter category comes THE OTHERS. This is a very good ghost story with some very tricky things going on. Watching it I think I must have come up with about eight different theories to explain what I was seeing. In the end I gave myself about one-third credit for having solved part of the puzzle.
It is late 1945 and Grace (played by Nicole Kidman) lives on one of the Channel Islands that the Germans occupied during the war that so recently ended. On this island good weather is just a thick gray cloud cover, but sometimes the fog is so thick it seeps into the house and seemingly into Grace's soul. Grace lives in a brooding mansion with her two children, both allergic to light. The Germans cut off the electricity and, partially for the sake of the children, Grace never restored it.
To protect the children from light, Grace has very strict rules about keeping all but very faint light out of rooms. This is a house that has befriended the darkness and shuns the light. These inflexible rules have to be explained in detail to the newly arrived hired help. The old hired help just disappeared one day not long ago. Adding to the mystery is that one of the children has been hearing a crying boy at night. That is just the set-up for this story written as well as directed and musically scored by Alejandro Amenabar. And the story he has created is tightly written. Amenabar leaves a lot of details to be explained in this puzzle of a script and every mystery is explained by the denouement.
This is a film that in large part is built around the Kidman performance. From the beginning she plays it as an authoritarian with many idiosyncratic rules of how to run her house. Meanwhile she traumatizes her children with her matter-of-fact, hellfire- and-brimstone religious interpretations. Amenabar has her made up to look very much the way Alfred Hitchcock would have made up Grace Kelly, whom she even seems to resemble in this film.
This is a film sculpted from darkness. Interior shots are nearly almost always half-dark, obscuring part of the picture. The lighting frequently gives the effect of being solely from candles. Exteriors are little brighter with figures receding into the thick fog. The visuals and the story line remain half- hidden and enigmatic to the viewer. The characters are uniformly dressed in dark colors or in black.
THE OTHERS is a stylistically well-controlled and effective ghost story. It relies on mood rather than special effects and succeeds admirably. I rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper