Some Twists And Stuff

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2007)

"The Sixth Sense" is the first horror film I know of that also works as a tear-jerker. A "creepy weepy," you might even call it; the darnedest thing about that combination being how well it plays here.
Child psychiatrist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is trying to recover his professional equilibrium after one of his most traumatic cases came to a fatal end. Enter Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a young boy who struggles with his peers, is called a "freak," and draws horrible images until he is called into a meeting about it. Now he just draws pictures of rainbows, not because his heart's in it, but because "they don't have meetings about rainbows." Underneath the surface, it's anything but rainbows for poor Cole.
"The Sixth Sense" has become a prisoner of its popularity the same way "Titanic" and "Jerry Maguire" have, marked for ridicule by those who think themselves better than the hoi polloi who made it such a hit. Even people who haven't seen "Sixth Sense" know its catchphrases and storyline, and with that familiarity comes contempt, especially as its director, M. Night Shyamalan, has struggled in recent years to repeat his success. In such an atmosphere, it's easy to overlook that the one thing that makes "Sixth Sense" so popular is that it's so incredibly good.
The art of storytelling is at the heart of the film, the way it quietly unfolds at its own pace, pulling you in with eerie moments and occasional shocks to a place that gets deeper as you get closer. Cole explains at one point to Dr. Crowe that the trick to a good story is that it have "some twists and stuff." People who downgrade "The Sixth Sense" do so on the basis of the twists, which was what got the film so talked about in the first place. But it's the other "stuff" that makes "Sixth Sense" so lasting and compelling for its fans.
Take it from me: I watched "Sixth Sense" for the first time just over a year ago. By then its much ballyhooed "secret" was out of the bag for me, just as it probably is for you even if you haven't yet seen this film. The film took me for a ride anyway, because of Shyamalan's soft-yet-penetrating eye; incredible acting led by Osment, Willis, and Toni Collette as Cole's mom; and its sentimental-yet-spooky atmosphere.
Every scene is shot with a certain style that makes it compelling not just as horror but as a slice of life, and this constant balance makes the film such a marvel. Even as it slips out of everyday reality into the utterly fantastic, it does so in a way you never notice your feet leaving the ground. Moments of fright are alleviated with humor and warmth.
Something else needs to be said of "Sixth Sense," that despite its horror theme it's a positive, inspirational film, one that on its own terms gives "Passion Of The Christ" a run for its money in terms of connecting to the deepest feelings of many of its viewers.
Yes, Shyamalan does gild the lily too much at times, tying up things that don't need tying up, and you can feel your heartstrings being tugged at a little too much at points. There may be a couple of minor plot holes visible on a second viewing. But still, at the very least the end result is one terrific piece of entertainment, and probably very much more.