A fine movie but certainly not a great one

Rating: 6/10 (17 October 1999)

Although this is a fine movie, it is one of the most overrated by audiences in recent years. Among the film's main strengths are the stunning performance of child actor Haley Joel Osment and by the young actress who plays his mother.
The script is very clever but also very, very sentimental. This is not to say that the scene near the end of the picture when the boy connects on a new level is not moving--it is. But the ending of the story of Willis's character is more effective as a stunt than as a source of honest emotion.
I will say, though, that the scenes intended to be scary are really, really scary. This owes largely to Osment's performance, which draws us into complete identification with the haunted child at the movie's center. It is also a credit to the screenwriter/director, though the movie's scares are never adequately integrated with the gooey emotion at the movie's heart.
I recommend THE SIXTH SENSE, but I insist that it is not the "great" movie that current popular sentiment suggests.