Shame on Alice

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 1999)

Not to cast aspersions on any fellow critic, but I would recommend those of you perusing the comments on "The Sixth Sense" to avoid reading AliceG's undeservedly nasty diatribe. My guess is that AliceG just cannot accept any film that doesn't swell with Gothic imagery and a teeming moroseness; I would also assume that the movie's much-hyped ending had no effect on a soul so numbed by cynicism. But I digress...
"The Sixth Sense" is a tremendous achievement, a stunning end to a season that hung itself with bathroom humor and bathroom-quality films like "Wild Wild West" and "The General's Daughter." The acting, the script, and the direction rival that of any film I have seen; it is to M. Night Shyamalan's credit that "The Sixth Sense" reverberates with such heartening force.
I cannot adequately express in such a short space how impressive this movie really is. What Hollywood has needed for so long is fresh talent, and in Shyamalan and Haley Joel Osment, it is unearthed. As for Bruce Willis, the assessment that he is a one-dimensional, prototype badass character is unfair. He lets "The Sixth Sense" come to him, never emoting, a trait that has victimized some of his lesser Hollywood compatriots.
"The Sixth Sense" deserves all the merit it has received, and I think Shyamalan will reap what he has sown once Academy Award nominations are announced. A work such as this warrants the praise it has received.