An old-fashioned chiller.

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2002)

6.5 out of 10
Nicole Kidman stars as Grace Stewart, an overly protective mother of two whose children have a rare disease that demands they be kept from bright light. She hires three new caretakers to help around the house (actually, a mansion), but not long afterward, that's when the "others" arrive. This old-fashioned chiller set in the late 1940's is a decent attempt at emanating the filmmaking style of the haunted house movies of the 70's. The film is undeniably atmospheric and there is a quiet tension that's almost impeccable.
Unfortunately, despite a terrific performance from Kidman and the child actors who play her children, the movie is coldly impersonal, never developing truly likeable characters to sympathize in this understandably maddening situation. Even worse, the movie is ultimately little more than an excericse in crafting an eerie mood; by the end, you'll note little of importance has occurred and the climactic plot twist, while ingeniously executed, is somewhat obvious and doesn't quite add the extra spiritual depth writer/director Alejandro Amenabar was aiming for.