The year's best film so far...

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 1999)

This is, by far, the year's best film to date: a very intense and emotional psychological thriller about a young boy who sees ghosts and the child psychologist who tries to reach him. Bruce Willis gives his best performance of his career. In my opinion, he's quite worthy of an Oscar nomination, but he'll never get one. He'll be lucky if he gets a Golden Globe nomination. The real treasure of the film is Haley Joel Osment. He gives the greatest child performance I have ever seen. It would be a travesty if he doesn't win Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards next year. Osment's performance makes me, as a theatre-acting major at University Of Illinois, feel envious of him, which I feel is a pathetic emotion. The writing and direction is flawless. The pacing is slow, but slow for a reason. We get a real sense of the characters and the situation and it makes us care about every one of them and their outcome. The ending, as many have said, is shocking and very effective. Nothing can prepare you for it; it's the best climax since, should I say, "The Usual Suspects." The ending makes you look at the film in an entirely different prospective and that is one of the film's greatest achievements. I highly recommend this chilling and haunting tale and should be remembered as a classic ghost story.