Good but not great

Rating: Null/10 (10 October 2011)

Sorry to disagree with most of the known universe, but I had a few problems with this movie. Firstly, the good things - the plot and the reveal were quite inventive, the photography was superb, and Bruce Willis & Toni Collette were excellent as usual. I'm not so sure about the child actor Haley Joel Osment, to be honest I found him irritating. And Olivia Williams is the quintessential plummy English actress, why on earth did they make her speak in an American accent (or choose an American actress, if this was required)? My biggest issue is all the padding which seems to go with these psychological chillers. There is not a huge amount of action, we spend a lot of time gazing soulfully into people's eyes while moody music plays to illustrate the troubled theme. The boy states that he sees dead people "all the time". Unfortunately, we don't. We get a fleeting glimpse of about five dead people. The movie could have been so much better, with some really frightening scenes, and a tense build up to the finale (as in "The shining", a superior movie in every respect). Instead, all the tension is released long before the end, which comes as a let down. There could have been more development of some minor characters like the teacher, or the people at the funeral. A great opportunity missed, in my view.