Old-fashioned ghost story, rich with irony

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2005)

THE OTHERS (Los Otros)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDS
1945: While awaiting her husband's return from the war, a lonely young woman (Nicole Kidman) locks herself into their remote, fog-bound mansion to protect their children (Alakina Mann and James Bentley) from a condition which renders them ultra-sensitive to natural light. But a number of strange occurrences lead her to believe the house may be haunted...
Co-produced by Tom Cruise (Kidman's husband at the time) and filmed in Spain with an international cast, THE OTHERS marked the English-language debut of Alejandro Amenábar, previously responsible for such high profile Spanish entries as THESIS (1996) and OPEN YOUR EYES (1997). Amenábar's film aspires to Jamesian sophistication, rejecting bombast for subtlety at every turn, as Kidman's troubled heroine struggles to identify the source of her supernatural experiences (are they real, or just a figment of her overheated imagination?). Kidman is too young for the role, and lacks the necessary gravitas, but she plays it with a fair degree of brittle dignity, particularly in her scenes with Mann, the most confrontational of her children, who is either a malicious prankster intent on frightening her younger brother with manufactured ghost stories, or is genuinely in contact with something sinister lurking within the house.
Like THE SIXTH SENSE (1999) before it, THE OTHERS prides itself on a series of climactic 'revelations', some of which tip their hand too early, but Amenábar's screenplay has more than a few surprises in store, especially on second viewing, when the multilayered dialogue is revealed as a masterful patchwork of irony and misdirection. Stage actress Fionnula Flanagan is appropriately enigmatic as Kidman's stoical housekeeper, and there's strong support from Christopher Eccleston and veteran comedian Eric Sykes (here playing it very straight indeed). Beautiful, atmospheric sets by Benjamín Fernández, photographed with exquisite grace by Javier Aguirresarobe.
(English version)