Ghost story with heart

Rating: Null/10 (20 November 1999)

American ghosts, like American gothic, seem to have been imported with a lot of other European cultural baggage into the New World (though the Indians had their own), but their basic modus operandi is the same. Ghosts linger after death only if there is some unfinished business, usually if they have died a violent death that remains unavenged. They are not terribly easy to communicate with. They are also guaranteed to drop the room temperature in the most overheated living room. And of course some people are much more sensitive to ghosts than others, having a "sixth sense".

Ghost folklore is put to good use here in what is really an exploration of the relationship between a child psychotherapist and his patient, Cole, a sad seven year old whose parents have split up and who doesn't seem to be coping well. For that matter, the psychotherapist isn't coping too well with his problems either, his failing marriage and the memory of a patient who killed himself after. But once the Doctor accepts that the kid is really seeing things he is able to help, and he realises at the end that he has helped himself a lot too.
Although the whole film has a pretty sombre tone, set in a well-observed gothic but real Philadelphia the tourist brochures are not likely to feature, it finishes on an optimistic note. Sometimes the ghosts will be able to finish their business satisfactorily, and be on their way, leaving us to carry on our lives in our own way without being haunted by the past.
Bruce Willis is cast as the Doctor. An interesting choice; he has been seen mostly as an action man zombie in violent thrillers (Die Hard etc). Here he is a zombie of a different sort, reflective, sensitive, concerned, guilt-ridden. He is greatly helped by a truly stunning performance by child actor Haley Joel Osment as Cole who communicates his character's pain so well we all suffer. You don't have to believe in ghosts to feel that no seven year old should have to put up with what this kid has to bear. In a lesser role, Toni Collette does a nicely observed caring but baffled mother, single, but coping (or would be but for Cole's problem). Olivia Williams rounds out the cast as the Doctor's wife, who, after flirting with the handsome help at her shop, takes to watching their wedding video when he's late home. Donnie Wahlberg (brother of Mark) also does a nice cameo as a deranged intruder.
The writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan, an ethnic East Indian brought up by his doctor parents in Philadelphia, (and who has a cameo role as an emergency room doctor here), has retold a truly ancient myth in a subdued and sombre style unusual in a mainstream Hollywood production. His handling of the scenes between Doctor and patient is quite masterly. At the end we are left with a simple but often forgotten truth: Our ghosts are about ourselves and once we recognise that we can deal with them.