I had... THE FEELING!

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2000)

You know the feeling I'm talking about. The buzz deep inside you when you see a film so brilliant that no star rating, any review, anything could possibly convey how absolutely superb the film was. Well The Sixth Sense gave that feeling for the first time since I saw Death in Venice a while ago. Anyhow, the plot sees Bruce playing a child psychologist and a year after he is shot by a disgruntled patient in his home, he takes of the case of Harley Joel Osment, who has the sixth sense of the tile: the ability to see the ghosts of dead people. After Color of Night and Mercury Rising, the prospects of Willis playing a shrink AND working with a child are not good, but he is perfect for the role. Gone are is usual action man histrionics and instead he underplays the role calmly and gives a performance that is worthy an Oscar nomination at least. Child actor, Osment is superb too and mixes his role with sympathy, fear and desperation that put his performance among the child greats. "Brat", doesn't even come into the equation. As superb as they are, the most credit has to go to writer/director M. Night Shyamalan who skillfully handles his intelligent script and comes up with a chilling atmosphere throughout the film as well as several electrifying shocks, based on relatively simply situations. Then there's the ending and a twist so perfectly executed it with have thinking for days, unpicking in your mind all that has gone before. It's that brilliant twist, plot-hole creating though it maybe, that really gives you THE FEELING.