Talent's Labour's Lost

Rating: 3/10 (14 August 2000)

"Sixth sense" is in many ways an extremely beautiful movie and contains some utterly brilliant acting - for example, the initial scene at the Crowes' house made my acting appreciation organ, whichever one that is, turn somersaults. But...
Every fictional story depends to some extent on the suspension of our disbelief in impossible things. A film's ambition at seriousness signals that the suspension required will be relatively small, i.e. that the script attempts to be plausible. "Sixth sense" obviously aspires at being a serious psychological drama, so one would expect a rather high level of plausibility.
Whether or not you can accept the basic premise, that souls have individual existence independent of the body ("ghosts") and that they can influence some living people, depends on your own religious standpoint and fundamental view of the universe, so let us leave that aside. But one unconditional premise in a story that aspires at any kind of plausibility is that all individuals of a certain species are subject to the same basic constraints: e.g. people can't fly, fish can't talk, ghosts can't handle material objects... and if the script writer decides to let an individual go beyond these constraints, the audience is entitled to an explanation.

WARNING - SPOILER AHEAD!
Now, in Sixth sense we find one ghost who can look perfectly ordinary (and even change clothes) while others only show themselves in the state they were in when they died; the same ghost can enter a church, a place where no other ghosts ever show up; he can throw rocks, play audio recordings and take notes, while it's crucial to the story that a "regular" ghost can't by herself move a video tape to where it will be found... All this simply because we aren't supposed to know that he's dead!!! And we get no hint of an explanation why this particular individual is Mr. Superghost!
Another serious hole in the fabric of the story is the gimmick of people "not knowing that they are dead". These people walk about and perceive their surroundings, but they don't notice that there's been a funeral, that their bank account is gone, that they can't get service in a store, that they themselves have stopped eating etc. etc. etc.???
Bruce Willis is normally a committed, thorough actor who does his homework and delivers the goods. Even his superheroes and inhabitants of the future are primarily people, who we know can get bored, have a headache or need to go to the bathroom. That's what makes them so easy to identify with and their stories so compelling. - Now, in "Sixth sense" individual scenes are beautifully acted, with a gripping psychological reality, but the plot holes indicated above effectively prevent the film from making sense as a whole. Simply speaking, Mr Shyamalan and Mr Willis are too involved in visual and psychological artistry to care whether Crowe goes to the bathroom, and if not, why. And, what's worse, they expect us viewers not to notice. To quote a more traditional Willis hero, "What do you think I am, stupid?!"

Obviously, on an artistic level, Shyamalan and Willis work extremely well together. But, for it to become beautiful music, we must hope for a better score.