I'll Take My Ghost Story with a Twist

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2010)

A marvelously atmospheric ghost story starring Nicole Kidman as a mother of two children who becomes convinced that her house is haunted.
The film is part "The Innocents," the wonderful and overlooked Deborah Kerr film from 1961, and part "The Sixth Sense," the film that pretty much set the standard for twist endings, but it's fresh and original enough to stand on its own without having to bear comparison to other films. It boasts an impressive twist ending of its own, which I maybe should have seen coming but didn't. But it also knows that a twist ending is only as good as the movie around it, and it's used to enhance the film's story, not as a crutch.
Nicole Kidman gives a terrific performance, one of two that got her attention in 2001 (the other being "Moulin Rouge!").
Grade: A