Nicole Kidman Channels the Dead; Grace Kelly Lives (Possible spoilers...)

Rating: Null/10 (19 August 2001)

"The Others" is full to the brim of wondrous and surprising things -- First and foremost, a script that opens like a Venus Flytrap -- exotic, seductive, deadly -- It dares us to look away, tantalizes, takes its time, invites us in, then closes like a vise on a simple, terrifying conceit: Do the dead haunt the living, or do the living haunt the dead? Amenabar's graceful, powerful writing and directing deserve our praise. The cinematography of The Others is breathtaking --every shot seems composed from a nightmare, but one just out of the reach of true memory. Fans of Christopher Eccleston (I am) will be delighted with his astonishing, almost wordless appearance. Fionnula Flanagan (Mrs. Mills), and the two children give performances that can only be described as delicious. NICOLE KIDMAN accomplishes something very rare here. Not only does she serve the story, fitting the character like a glove, she conjures forth the bewitching image of GRACE KELLY in her prime. This coincidence is not lost on Mr. Amenabar, whose camera captures Kidman in that rapturous, Hitchcockian way: swirling down staircases, hovering at waist level, gliding like a predator, circling upward to the precise moment of profile. Indeed, Ms. Kidman's embodiment of the late Grace Kelly is so startling, so uncanny, I was convinced there were two ghost stories unfolding simultaneously: one in a haunted house; the other being a legendary actress reaching across decades to possess the soul of another.