"I see dead people"

Rating: 10/10 (28 March 2014)

This movie isn't just thriller in the modern sense, but it is also a ghost story that is fresh and original, even to this day. It has long been believed that children are better than adults at seeing ghosts; in this movie, that holds true. A small boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) solemnly tells his psychologist, "I see dead people. They want me to do things for them." He seems to be correct.
Using an "as if" approach to therapy, the psychologist Crowe (played by Bruce Willis) asks Cole (Osment), "What do you think the dead people are trying to tell you?" This is an excellent question, seldom asked in ghost stories, where the heroes are usually so egocentric they think the ghosts have gone to all the trouble of appearing simply so they can see them. Cole has some ideas. Crowe wonders whether the ideas aren't sound even if there aren't really ghosts.
Bruce Willis often finds himself in fantasies, action and science fiction films. Perhaps he fits easily into them because he is so down to earth. He rarely seems ridiculous, even when everything else in the screen is absurd because he hardly ever over-acts; he usually plays his characters flat and matter of fact. And in a movie like this, is needs to be played like that because it makes the character of Crowe more believable, and the plot more engaging.
Haley Joel Osment, his young co-star, is a very good actor in a film where his character possibly has more lines than anyone else. He's in most of the scenes, and he has to act in them--this isn't a role for a cute kid who can stand there and look solemn in reaction shots. There are fairly involved dialogue passages between Willis and Osment that require good timing, reactions and the ability to listen.
I have to admit I was blind-sided by the ending. The solution to many of the film's puzzlements is right there in plain view, and the movie hasn't cheated, but the very boldness of the storytelling carried me right past the crucial hints and right through to the end of the film, where everything takes on an intriguing new dimension. "The Sixth Sense" has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly.