Frightening, intelligent and sensitive

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2000)

Three were the numbers of times I watched this movie till I get the conclusion that... it's perfect. Before I watched it for the first time, I already had great expectations, what is not good, the chances you have to be disappointed is much bigger then. But the opposite happened: I left the cinema wondering how M. Night Shyamalan could do something so perfectly arranged and also coherent. And I am not just talking about the plot, the soundtrack, the camera movements, everything seems to be in the right place.
Cole is a twelve-year-old boy who would be like every children in his age if there weren't this simple fact: he can see dead people! The story is focus on Cole's little issue and how Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) will find a way to help him. The movie also has beautiful background themes like: love, losing a close person, familiar relationships, human cruelty, friendship, human rational beliefs and how people always try to find reasonable explanation for everything, beyond of course the relationship between doctor and patient, how they have to be confident with each other to find out the answers.
It's not a movie to make people scared like horror films, but it has the elements that can make you jump out of the chair and fell chills in your neck whiling watching it. The bad news is after this movie you might have another opinion about chills ... The same thing will happen about things we can't find anywhere... Never mind, when you see it, you'll understand what I'm talking about.
The three things I admire the most about this movie, one for each time I saw it, are: the Haley Joel Osment performance  an Oscar deserved one, the techniques  how it really keeps the watchers attention, and how everything directs to the amazing surprise at the end. Go see it!!!