"Not Every Gift Is A Blessing". How true.

Rating: Null/10 (8 August 1999)

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD
"The Sixth Sense" is a neat little thriller that borderlines drama and a plain, old-fashioned ghost story. It is chilling and effective at certain times, puzzling in others.
Bruce Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a renown child psychologist who, after an encounter with an ex-patient who he couldn't help, is left mentally scarred and finds the world around him falling apart. He takes on a quiet and alienated young boy named Cole, whom he tries to succeed in reaching him where others have failed. Young Cole is branded a freak by his schoolmates, and everyone believes that his sense of isolation and paranoia is self-imposed, and brought on by his parent's divorce. Willis treats his case in much the same manner at first, but when he admits the truth to him, things start getting really weird. Apparently Cole is gifted in ways few would imagine, he has the ability to see and talk to the spirits dead people. And it is not just the recently dead, he can see deaths that took place many years before. In one scene, his teacher is quizing him on the history of the school, and he casually mentions "They used to hang people here", drawing many puzzled stares from his classmates. When the subtitle on the poster says "Not Every Gift Is A Blessing", they mean just that, this turns Cole into a nervous wreck, and he becomes increasingly paranoid as the film progresses. All he knows is that the ghosts won't leave him alone, and they want something from him. Willis soon becomes a believer, and he tries to help him in whatever way he can, while putting on the back burner everything else, including the relationship with his wife.
I wouldn't dare give away the ending, except to say that it defies all logic. It will leave you asking many questions as you think back to instances earlier in the movie. For the casual moviegoer, it will give you a lot to talk about after the movie is over.
"The Sixth Sense" is flawless in terms of acting. Bruce Willis is very watchable, as always, and he turns in the caring, big-brotherly performance he failed to give in last year's mediocre "Mercury Rising". I have always liked Bruce Willis in whatever he did, even if everything else about the movie was bad. It is a good role for him. Young Haley Joel Osment is superb as Cole, and he plays with a perfect sense of timing and depth. He is incredibly believable in his role, and he has turned in what could quite possibly be the best performance from a child actor I have ever seen.
Overall, this is a good movie. It has the perfect mix of supernatural thriller and drama, with more emphasis on the chemistry between Willis and Osment rather than distracting the audience with special effects for two hours. It is not a prefect movie, but it makes for one of the summer's most satisfying moviegoing experiences. 8/10