My lovely friend Emma's review!

Rating: 3/10 (16 December 2008)

This is my friend Emma's review!
'The film starts off with Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) and his wife Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams) getting drunk as a celebration of Malcolm's honour plaque given to him by the Government/Council. After running upstairs, ready to jump into bed together, they hear a noise in the bathroom. It turns out a mental ex-patient of Malcolm's has broken in ("Vincent Gray"), and in the end of the scene Malcolm is shot by him, but the audience don't know yet that he is, in fact, dead.
The first plot hole my friend and I came across was the notes Malcolm has on Cole Sear, his new client. How did he get the notes? We don't know. As it turns out in the very end, Malcolm has been dead the entire time, so he finds out for himself then why nobody has spoken to him for such a long time (yet another plot hole, because you WOULD notice that). You can rule out the idea that 'Coles mother filled Malcolm in with all the details' because Malcolm is dead and nobody can see him. A ridiculous detail I found out was that Bruce Willis had to write with his right hand in this film (he is naturally left-handed) to hide the fact he is not wearing his wedding ring since his death in the first scene.
Plot hole number three comes up soon after, when we find Malcolm and Cole's mother sitting opposite one another in chairs in the Sear's resident lounge. I started to wonder; how did the very-dead-and-invisible Malcolm actually get into the house in the first place? Did he simply knock on the door and dart in as a confused Mrs Sear opens the door to an empty space? That, of course, would be ridiculous. So we are left wondering how the Hell he got in. Anyway, it is "cleverly designed" to make it look like Mrs Sear was speaking to Malcolm before Cole enters the house, returning home from school. Of course, when you figure out he's dead, you end up thinking how stupid that technique was because it was pointless and confusing, NOT a 'twist' in the plot. Later on in the film, a few scenes later, there is the scene where Malcolm is supposedly 'unravelling the secret' Cole has about his sixth sense, seeing dead people. The scene is where Malcolm is listening to a recording of himself and Vincent years ago in one of the counselling sessions. This scene soon gets on your nerves as all you can see is a confused Malcolm with a ridiculous expression on his face listening to what sounds like an out of tune radio. Yes, spooky, Shymalan. Apparently, from the "information" Malcolm gets from this event, he "figures out" that Cole has a similar condition as Vincent did. Diddy-Mao, Malcolm, we already figured that out for ourselves scenes ago! Now would be an opportune moment to mention that the actor that played Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is incredibly irritating throughout the film. He gives off that 'theatre-brat' attitude that makes you not want to give him any sympathy for his issues, but instead put him in a cage and throw away the key.
After a scene where a pathetic Malcolm tells Cole of his "explanation" regarding the ghosts Cole sees, that the ghosts are actually wanting to have Cole's help, they summon up this idea for Cole that he should indeed help the people he sees. The acting is, again, ridiculous and melodramatic as Cole sees more hanging dead people.
Plot hole number 5 occurs when Malcolm visits Cole in his school play. Why didn't anybody sit on him? He's not there, after all.
In the next scene or so, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the couch with the couple's wedding video on in the background. As she sleeps, Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing. Ding, ding, ding! Plot hole number 6! A shocked Malcolm has only JUST realised he hasn't been wearing his wedding ring! Oh dear! What an atrocity! I think not, just plain stupid. He then attempts to open the cupboard door he attempted to open on more than one occasion during the film, and then realises he can't open it because Anna has blocked the door with boxes, as revealed by the camera as it falls back to show the boxes. Yet another unfulfilled, pointless, random scene. Wouldn't you notice the boxes before then? A confused and upset Malcolm then rushes upstairs to the bedroom and discovers his wound from the gunshot. Cue plot hole number 7; who in their right mind doesn't notice a gaping hole in their stomach for over a year? Malcolm really isn't on the ball is he? Anyway, he realises he's actually dead now and puts two and two together as to why his wife has been ignoring him. After a few flashbacks we realise Anna wasn't actually in a mood with Malcolm, she just never saw him! Oh the twists and turns of this film just get worse, don't they? Cheesefest. Malcolm has a conversation with Anna, as Cole told him to. He says he loves her and that she wasn't second best to his job. Oh, what a lovely ending. The screen then fades to black. Fin.
Another plot hole/random 'detail' I noticed was the amount of red props used in the film (Lynn's red nails, Cole's red sweater, the red balloon at the birthday party, etc). The camera makes a bee line for all these random red items but we never really find out why. According to Shymalan, it symbolised something the audience had to figure out. I didn't figure it out, it's just too out of place and stupid.'