Creepy, but also deeply moving.

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2003)

It's not very often that a tale of the supernatural is also a deeply moving emotional experience. Usually if a tale of clairvoyance, or any narrative delving into the supernatural is going to be dealt with in a way that is emotionally very moving it is going to be done on a television series, like The X Files or Buffy. Here M Night Shyamalan creates a tale that deeply cinematic, at times unnerving and creepy, but which is deeply sad to the extent it will leave you with a tear in your eye. He succeeds admirably.

Having Bruce Willis as a caring type in a film where he tries to protect a child has been done before in the shape of Mercury Rising. That film was not the biggest hit that Willis has had (even though it was quite an enjoyable film). Usually having Willis as a caring, fatherly type is akin to having Arnie or Sly in comedy movies. We just don't really want to see them in a film like that. Willis bucks the trend of doing something different by actually doing it well. Here is superb in a non action role, putting in his best performance since Pulp Fiction. A more restrained role without resorting to using guns or being chased or shouting dialog like 'yippe-ky-yay' is quite hard to believe, but here he pulls it of fantastically. In saying that he is supported by a fantastic supporting cast. Olivia Williams and Toni Collette are fantastic, but everyone is beaten to the acting stakes by Haley Joel Osmont. Never has a child actor put in a role of such maturity or brilliance. Even better, for a child actor, he doesn't try and milk the emotional parts by purposefully playing to the character. His performance is right on the tone of this downbeat and quiet little film. The scenes he shares with Willis are powerfully intense, but in that quiet little way. Likewise his scenes with Toni Collette, who nagged a best supporting actress nod and deservedly so. Anybody who doesn't have the hairs on the back of their neck standing up, but simultaneously moved to tears when Osmont's character Cole tells his mother played by Collete about her mother really should check their own pulse. This, along with the final scene of the film, demonstrate how emotional a horror film can be as when done correctly.
Having had the plot twist spoiled for me, I can't say if was a surprise or not, as not having watched the film and not know what was coming cannot lead me to saying. Knowing doesn't detract from this wonderful little film that was quite simply one of the best of 1999. The twist, which should be a horrifying moment, starts of initially as that, but develops into one of the saddest moments I have ever seen in a film. It demonstrates brilliantly what this film stands for. A creepy little thriller with the capacity to move you to tears.