Good, but...

Rating: 7/10 (28 November 2001)

By the time I got around to seeing this movie, many of my friends had already been to see it, so I had a pretty good idea of the spread of opinions out there. Some claimed it was the best thing since sliced bread, but upon examination, it turned out most of these people were self-confessed Nicole Kidman fans. And hey, us Aussies tend to be a bit parochial at the best of times.
But an upswelling of opinion worldwide that's enough to propel this movie into the IMDb's top 250 is something you simply can't ignore.

The first thing I noticed about this movie as a whole was the art direction. The cinematography was not necessarily anything to write home about--it was above workmanlike, but not as outstanding as other films I've seen this year--but the set design, the layout, the costumes, the lighting, the sheer *beauty* of this film really made me sit up and take notice.

Perhaps unfortunately, for me art direction is a means by which plot can be expressed. In films where it's appropriate to think about the plot (and as a cerebral horror/suspense movie, this one falls squarely in that category), Plot Is King.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Okay, if you're still reading and you don't want to ruin any surprises, STOP NOW!!!
Right.
When we reach the end of the movie, we learn that Nicole went mad and smothered both her children before shooting herself with a rifle. They've been seeing 'ghosts' throughout the movie, but these 'ghosts' are actually real live people that have moved into the house. At first only the Nicole's little girl can see them, but as the truth becomes more apparent, that the only real ghosts are the protagonists themselves (and their servants, but that's a side-plot), the real people become properly visible.

Obviously, this is always going to draw parallels with The Sixth Sense...and if you haven't seen *that* movie and don't want it ruined, stop reading now too!
Bruce Willis discovers he's dead at the end of that movie--murdered by an intruder to the house he shares with his wife. Some have said that The Others handles the revelation better, others have said it's worse. I fall into the latter camp.
The thing is, when you're watching The Others, you're wondering where it's going throughout the entire movie. There's no sense of purpose. There's definite interest, and you don't get bored, but there's no secondary plot to keep the audience engrossed in a storyline, nothing to stop them from picking the movie apart at each step. The psychologist/patient relationship between Bruce and Haley in Sixth Sense offers that. Plus you get a greater sense of backstory in the history of Willis' character's life.

Also, unlike Sixth Sense, The Others refrains from having subtle pointers to the real truth. Instead, it opts for one big pointer, and then a lot of red herrings. Where the path to the truth in Sixth Sense was obvious once you knew how, the path to the truth in The Others is littered with what appear at first glance to be inconsistencies and plot holes.
Put simply, I preferred Sixth Sense on its ability to *draw* the audience into the storyline, to bring out an interest in the characters' situations and for its masterful working of the backdrop behind it. Sixth Sense is a less beautiful movie, that much is true. However, there are so many little things that could have tipped you off to the truth in it.

Sixth Sense brushes you lightly with a feather every now and then in an effort to make you see the chicken. The Others tries to bludgeon you with the entire chicken once or twice and then throws fish at you just to make you think about something else for a while.
Having said all that, it's still a very good movie, and one I'd recommend going to see. A pity that it's just not quite as good as it might have been.

Pros: Atmospheric, beautiful, highly suspenseful, and well worth going to see. Plus the two kids are the best I've seen on screen since...well...Haley Joel Osment, really.
Cons: It just doesn't *quite* get there.
Likely Oscar nominations: Largest budgetary allocation for light bulbs, 2001.
Verdict: If Sixth Sense was on the highest salary in the country, The Others can still put its kids through private school, university and afford braces for them both. However, it'll never afford the mansion on the hill. Good...but could have been better.
7Â½ out of 10.