Watch it twice...

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2002)

I really loved this film.
In "unbiased observer" mode first of all, the things that most stood out for me were the performances of the two children; I felt that they were given great lines (credit to the writer, of course) and, most importantly, they delivered them so well. The relationship between the children was very real, teasing and loving by turns. Haley J Osment, look and learn !
Kidman did a great job on the accent. I had the misfortune to watch Jodie Foster try her posh English accent out in "Anna & The King" the night before, and I can tell you now, being a great actress (as Jodie is) does not automatically endow one with the gift of tongues.
A lot of things didn't sit right with me when first I saw this film. I couldn't work out the reason for the animosity between Kidman's character and her daughter Anne, and between Kidman and the "sinister" servants. This is why I say watch this film twice. Although the ending resolves all issues, there are so many subtle nuances in the interactions between the characters prior to this that are very easy to miss the first time around. And make so much sense on a second viewing.
-SPOILERS (if you haven't seen this film yet - shame on you !)-
I know there are people who have posted here who have said they worked out all the plot within five minutes. I find this hard to believe. I am a fairly intelligent person, I watch a lot of films, and I must say that I was taken in.
I can't accept the verdict of other posters that this film was a rip-off of Sixth Sesne either. Yes, SS was a very good film too, but not nearly in the same league as Others. Sure, you have the same base ingredient - people who are unaware they are dead - but I would always have put SS into the same league as "Ghost". The Others is much deeper, in that Kidmans character is an infanticide, and unaware of this horror; she plays the role perfectly, so protective of the children she herself killed. The sinister servants turn out to be helpers, subtly guiding her and the children to a realisation of their state; this latter strand put me in mind of the chiropodist/angel from "Jacobs Ladder".
I could go on and on, but won't.
I think that how one was brought up plays a great role in how one views a story like this. Some people go to see a horror film hoping to see CGI ghosts leaping from cellars. What these people are really after is gore, and would be much more satisfied with Russ Meyers' movies.
What really got me about this film (and this is where the "biased" observer part comes in) is the memories I retain from my own childhood. When I was in my very early teens, my parents took me to stay in a house which was very similar to the one featured in this film. It was an old Manor House, in the grandest of Anglo-Irish traditions, with few guests, and few servants. One evening, I went to the top of the house, and found a small doorway just adjacent to what would, I think, have been the servant's quarters at the turn of the last Century. Going in, I found before me an attic corridor stretching ahead for some distance - this was a big house ! Being in the eaves, the roof was just above my head, and all was painted pure white. There were four rooms to the left, and four to the right. The place was clean, and tidy, but obviously hadn't been occupied for a long time. Each room was tiny, and painted white, and contained nothing but small mementoes of the past, untouched and unarranged; a doll's house in one room, a rocking horse in another etc. And in each tiny room, a cat, sometimes two or three, peering out from behind these artifacts. As a child, these images were disturbing, but I couldn't for many years figure out why. It was only as I got older that I began to appreciate that the disquieting thing about these abandoned rooms was the lack of children, and, at the same time, the overwhelming sense that they were still there.
"The Others" struck a big chord with me, not least because it stirred memories buried for a long time, but also because it is full of great scenes, is brilliantly characterised, and the performances throughout ring as true as they possibly could in a "ghost story".
But... watch it twice.....