M Night Shyamalan's sleight-of-hand masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (2 January 2016)

M Night Shyamalan's sleight-of-hand masterpiece.
A child psychologist, Dr Malcolm Crowe (played by Bruce Willis), is shot by a deranged former patient of his, Vincent Grey. Grey then kills himself. A few months later he is counseling a boy, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who shows similar symptoms to Grey. He is worried that Cole will go down the same path. However, Cole has certain special, supernatural abilities...
Great movie with a brilliant twist at the end. For the most part it feels like a slow-burning horror movie. Writer-director M Night Shyamalan, directing his third movie (though the first two were very low-key), expertly builds the tension and intrigue.
The twist, when it comes, is so unexpected, but works so well and fits so perfectly with the plot. Even watching the movie a second time you are hard-pressed to fault how the twist fits in with the plot.
Some great drama too, and quite emotional at times, especially towards the end.
Solid performance by Bruce Willis in the lead role. Good work from Haley Joel Osment as the boy. Good support from Toni Collette and Olivia Williams. Osment and Collette got Supporting Actor/Actress Oscar nominations for their performances.
Just a pity Shyamalan couldn't reproduce this form in any of his subsequent movies. His next movie, "Unbreakable", was good, but not brilliant. "Signs" was mediocre and "The Village" was okay, but not great. After that his movies were very bad - "Lady in the Water", "The Happening" and "The Last Airbender" were very silly and pointless. One keeps hoping for a return to the creative brilliance that was The Sixth Sense but, considering how his movies seem to get worse with every attempt, this may be hoping too much.