Unusually Thoughtful and Affecting Ghost Film

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2008)

The reason Amenabar's work on The Others is so above the fare of a given ghost film is because it turns out to be a beautifully philosophical musing on death, how death is something even the dead are not prepared for, because the psychological fear assumed on earth overpowers the physical seamlessness the real thing may have. There is also an honest undercurrent of perspective on how religion may effect the mental state of afterlife, complemented by another concept that may or may not be hopeful or comforting to people, which is the idea that spiritual and materialistic connections in this life may carry over into the next.
The film flows gently like the English countryside it portrays, patiently executing a brilliant build-up of seemingly purposeless events and phantom motives that serve as exterior for the perfectly coinciding ones that later reveal themselves.
The multi-talented Alejandro Amenabar, who wrote, directed, and also scored the film, has crafted an unusually thoughtful and affecting ghost film. Nicole Kidman's nerve-shattered, heart-ravaged performance as the strict Catholic war widow who spends her life protecting her two photosensitive children gives just the right conservative, classical yet realistically drawn upon approach. Christopher Eccleston, playing Kidman's husband, may be quite dull, but Alakin Mann and James Bentley, playing Kidman's children, are either not from the assembly line of cryptic horror movie children or they're from a fresh batch.