Good but not quite as good as many make out.

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2006)

The Others is set on 'Jersey, The Channel Islands 1945' where Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) lives in a large mansion with her two young children Anne (Alakina Mann) & Nicholas (James Bentley) who suffer from an incredibly rare disease in which exposure to bright light could kill them. Three friends, the elderly Mrs. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), Mr. Edmund Tuttle (Eric Sykes) & a young mute girl named Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) turn up at Grace's home looking for work as servants & luckily for them the previous servants left a week ago. Grace gives them all jobs & tells them their duties. Grace warns them that her daughter Anne is prone to telling lies & making stories up & it's not long before she is telling Bertha about other people in the house although at first there is no evidence that there are, however as children's crying is heard, strange noises emanate from empty rooms & doors open & close by themselves it appears that Anne may be telling the truth...
This Spanish, American & French co-production was written & directed by Chilean-born, Spanish based Alejandro Amenabar who also composed the music & I liked it, I didn't think it was amazing & I have one or two reservations about it but overall I thought it was an effective little ghost film. The script is pretty slow going even at the best of times & tries to return to the days where horror relied on good storytelling instead of relying on special effects, violence & bad language. It moves along at a sedate pace but the character's are decent & it's sort of involving, it manages to draw the viewer in quite well & all the careful build up helps the effective twist ending. A lot has been said about the twist & I for one think it works extremely well although there simply is no denying that it's more or less exactly the same as The Sixth Sense (1999) which was made at least two years prior to The Others. I'm in two minds over The Others, I liked it for what it was but it was slow going & sometimes I found it hard to maintain my interest in it & the effectiveness of the entire film depends upon it's ending which is great if you haven't seen The Sixth Sense but if you have I'd imagine you'd feel a little de ja vu & not be too impressed. There are a few holes in the plot & logic but nothing too detrimental.
Director Amenabar does a fantastic job of giving the film a creepy look & atmosphere, the colours & the the use of light & shadow are excellent. There are some nice shots & some eerie scenes although on the negative side it's a bit lifeless & bland at times. The 40's period setting suits the film perfectly & it's superbly realised throughout. There's no gore or violence & I can't remember any rubbish CGI computer effects (yeah!).
With a supposed budget of about $17,000,000 The Others is well made & has nice period production design, it shows that a lot of time went into the look of the film. While watching The Others I realised that because of the types of films that I like (horror, exploitation, low budget, sci-fi, etc.) I haven't actually seen a Nicole Kidman film before now. I was impressed & I thought she was great, she's very pretty & very good in this. Her ex Tom Cruise was an executive producer on The Others, presumably before they split. Everyone else does a fine job including ex Doctor Who (2005) Christopher Eccleston.
The Others is a good solid ghost story that I found watchable & effective, unfortunately it's a bit on the slow side & the ending really isn't as original or groundbreaking as it could have been although it's still highly effective. Well worth a watch but I doubt many would want to see it more than once so perhaps wait for it to turn up on TV or cable.