Good job, but one of the top 20 of all time?

Rating: 6/10 (22 April 2004)

In 1999 a movie was released that was the topic of conversation around office water coolers throughout the country. People were amazed at slow pace, but ever engrossing ghost story that culminated in an ending that no one saw coming. The movie was M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense and its success went on to soak up over $300 million at the domestic box office and even garnish its young unknown star Haley Joel Osment a Supporting Actor nod at the 2000 Academy Awards.
The thing is, that still to this day, I don't understand all the hubbub. Was it a good movie? Yes. But was it so revolutionary that it deserves its standing as 19th on the all-time grossing films list? Hardly.
For those of you who have been living in a cave waiting for peace in the Middle East, The Sixth Sense stars Bruce Willis as Malcolm Crowe, a psychologist that we are introduced to being shot in the opening scenes. After what we expect to have been a speedy recovery, Malcolm befriends a new client, Cole Sear (Osment) who seems to have a gift/curse of being able to see and communicate with dead people.
Malcolm tries to comprehend what Cole is facing and this all leads to a revelation of his own that Â‘shocked the movie world' back in 1999 and has been copied and parodied countless times since.
To spend any more time on the plot would be counterproductive. Most likely you have seen the film and on the off chance that you are coming out of a cave, well then, you might be lucky enough to be surprised at the ending without anyone telling you what to look for before it unveils itself.
So let's start with the good stuff first. Director M. Night Shyamalan did a superb job in keeping us interested in the story and the characters when everyone seems to be speaking in a monotone. Shyamalan directed only two films before Sense (Praying with Anger and Wide Awake) so no one expected the phenomena that resulted. The Sixth Sense was also written by Shyamalan we all know how rare it is to find a talented writer/director now of days.
Also good are the performances. Bruce Willis veers away from his macho persona he usually exudes and Osment and Toni Collette (who plays his mother) are great and were both deserving of their Oscar nods. Hell, I would even give chops to Donnie Wahlberg who has but a small, albeit important, role at the beginning of the film. All around, an A- grade for the actors.
Then there was the scary stuff. You know, the things that go bump. There are a few genuine scares with rousing musical scores in tow but it is the quiet softer moments that really made the hair on the back of your neck take notice. When Osment utters, `I see dead people' or when we see the imprint of a palm evaporate on a kitchen table, you are swept up in a world that is more spooky that scary and the movie is better off staying on this path.

There aren't many things that are wrong with The Sixth Sense and that is where I contradict myself. I agree that The Sixth Sense was one of the better movies released in 1999. I also believe that the premise was interesting and trend setting. What I didn't understand was the sheer fascination from audiences around the world that put this movie into such lofty lists (80 million people had seen the movie after its release to DVD/Video in 2000). Were we all that brain dead in '99 after Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Toy Story 2 that this film stood out so indiscreetly?

In researching for this review, I can honestly now answer that question with a definite, `YES'. Evidenced earlier with The Usual Suspects and then again in 2001 with Nicole Kidman's The Others, the movie going public has proven at the box office that if you can dupe them an dupe them good, they are willing to go back and back again in hopes of trying to figure out how you pulled it off the first time.
So hats off to you Mr. Shyamalan. Although your succeeding efforts (Unbreakable, Signs) were better films, you did set a standard with a slightly better than average film, and hey who doesn't have time to stand at the water cooler and talk about your use of the color red in the film. Good job.
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