Outstanding! Brilliant! Intelligent! Imaginative!

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2000)

This movie is excellent.
The acting, casting, direction, filming, and especially the music, dialogue, and script are superb.
Willis and Osment are outstanding (many of their scenes are riveting!). So were some of the minor characters, notably the man who watches his daughter's video.
Numerous subtle touches were brilliant. E.g., Cole's mother was dressed less fashionably than the other mothers at the birthday party. This was revealing and sad. She desperately wanted her son, and probably herself, to be accepted. This made the event at the party even more tragic and her situation more horrifying.
Many of the minor elements were brilliantly imaginative, e.g. the tale of the girl with the video and the remarks by "Grandma".
Nothing is irrelevant or ill-conceived. Nothing is predictable. Nothing is sloppy; it's all very tight.
After the first viewing, I watched it again. I was even more impressed by its brilliance, subtlety, intelligence, and imagination.
Most movies bore me. I have a hard time getting through most of them. I prefer watching one at home so I can easily turn it off; I seldom watch an entire movie. I do not like "horror films"; I don't consider this to be one. I also don't like things that depend on the element of surprize; surprize is an integral part of this movie, but it is brilliant and beautiful to watch even when all the surprizes are known.
I'll be on the lookout for more of Shyamalan's work.
Why! oh why! can't Hollywood produce more movies of this quality and intelligence?