Not Every Gift Is A Blessing

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2006)

The story takes place in modern day America where a child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is looking for redemption for a former patient's suicide. He finds a young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) and along comes a bonding relationship; a man torn and broken and a collapsing marriage, and a boy terrified to wake up in the morning and classed as a freak by his peers.
Directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, it's clear that everyone on the set has worked extremely hard to make this movie what it is. But to have written such an elaborate and well thought out story is quite remarkable also.
Haley Joel Osment delivers an astonishing performance for such a young actor, it's clear that he has a bright future ahead of him. It also refreshing to see Bruce Willis take a different role not the whole stereotypical Hollywood action film hero. He actually keeps his shirt on and he's not wielding some kind of firearm nor does he have a woman leaning on his chest saying how much she loves him. In this film he's really shown that he can do so much more than take out a gang of mobsters and be the hero of the day, in this story the hero takes a completely different role.
It's very difficult to talk about the film without saying anything to spoil it but as Malcolm and Cole finally start to connect, Cole wants to tell Malcolm a secret and he says, "I can see dead people." Probably one of the most chilling and memorable lines in movie history it also had a big effect on me to see now what the child was going through. All these years of suffering and torment, and now he's finally being able to talk to someone about it.
Toni Collette also delivers a fantastic performance as a regular 'super' mum; her husband has passed away and she is now working two jobs, constantly trying to protect her child. In one particularly well acted piece of drama Cole is unwell and faints; she takes him to the hospital and is accused of hurting her child as markings were found on his back. As she looks away towards Malcolm in disgust a tear falls from her eyes, But the unexplained issue is what gave Cole the scratches, a group of children could not have given him that. Nor can his mother understand why was he screaming, it just constantly builds up to the film's climatic and dramatic ending.
Another well-acted minor role was Vincent Gray (Donnie Wahlberg). He was only on screen for about three or four minutes but you could see all the emotion and drama that was put into that short while on screen. But the minute he appeared there was a lot of eeriness and feelings of despair, and he was a completely unpredictable character.
As the plot gets deeper the actors immerse themselves in the characters and really start to show their emotions, this is cleverly portrayed by several tear-jerking moments. Credit to Willis and Osment; they really make it the great film it is but my greatest amount of praise would have to be awarded to Shyamalan as for coming up and directing such a spectacular film nearly flawless in every aspect. I think it's clear that The Sixth Sense is one of the genre defining movies of the 20th century.
8/10. A genre defining thriller, really one of the must see movies, all I can do is praise this film, its blockbuster genius.