Shallower than it looks, and some irritating slips, but still well worth seeing

Rating: 8/10 (17 April 2001)

My big problem with this film is the ending. No, not *that* ending (everybody knows this is a film with a twist, though I certainly mean to respect the tradition of not revealing it for the sake of first-time viewers). It's the gooey, feelgood sentimentality of it. What possessed Shyamalan, who's written a literate, well-paced, thoughtful and heartfelt screenplay, to tack on this gloopy, over-optimistic, neatly resolved conclusion for the young hero Cole? Very disappointing. I also think it was a bad mistake to cut the originally-shot final scene (available as an extra on DVD and at least one VHS release), which rounds out all the sequences we see on video - left feeling rather redundant in the final cut - and provides a more emotionally complex ending. Maybe one day he'll see the error of his ways (and the studio will see an opportunity for more big bucks) and issue a revised Director's Cut restoring his superior first thoughts.
Those are the reservations, which I put first because this film was praised rather beyond its real merits by a somewhat hysterical community of reviewers delighted to find signs of intelligent life in blockbuster film-making. Make no mistake, this IS an intelligent, finely-crafted, almost fully satisfying film, developing a premise that has to be one of the best ideas in modern cinema. (There are some minor slips in consistency, however much the film makers may pretend otherwise.) Its biggest attractions are the beautiful cinematography, and Haley Joel Osment in the difficult central role; he's a real actor, a bit of a prodigy really, and gives a strikingly mature performance. Bruce Willis rightly plays second fiddle.