A film that manages to transcend the sum of its parts.

Rating: Null/10 (2 October 1999)

"The Sixth Sense" has at least three flawed areas that interfered with my enjoyment of what could have been a real gripper. Number one (and I am not being humorous)was the silly and so very obvious hair piece perched atop Bruce Willis's bald cranium. At first I found it quite distracting, with my focus continuously wandering up to that area. I was mostly able to work through this as the film progressed, but was never able to completely avoid its niggling presence. Secondly, the bizarre and phantasmagoric plot required just a little too much suspension of what is left of my intellect to be entirely persuasive in a film so deadly serious in its portent. I also found the effects makeup of the dead people very unconvincing and rather poorly done. Finally, Bruce Willis is, in my opinion, not a very good actor. Competent, yes, particularly when involved in one of his action/adventure vehicles where charisma and presence are required more than acting excellence. I do realize, however, that the constraints of the script and the grim mood of this film did require a rather somber and wooden approach to the portrayal of his character. Happily, all of this is forgotten with the superb performance of young master Osment playing the part of the boy, Cole, along with an excellent and convincing job by Toni Collette as his mother. The very last scenes of the movie were obviously designed to shamelessly extract all possible moisture from one's tear ducts, including mine, but upon leaving the theater, I was able to apply my most useful and stringent criterion for judging a film: how long did it stay with me? An hour, 5 hours, the next day? All of the above. "The Sixth Sense" is a very good film which manages to transcend the goofiness of the plot by means of good direction, fine camera work and some excellent and intense acting--and, of course, the surprises at the end.