One of the best films ever.

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 1999)

I was astounded. I was awe-struck. I haven't left a theatre feeling like that since I saw Silence of the Lambs. This is one of the finest movies ever made. If the Academy doesn't give Haley Osment at least a nomination for his performance, there is no justice in Hollywood (but then many of us have suspected that for years).
For those of you who haven't seen this film yet, forget everything you think you know. Forget everything anyone has told you.
I have heard some people complain about the pace of the film. Well, I suppose for the MTV-addled, or those who think that this is another Bruce Willis "blow up everything in sight" movie, they will be unsure what to do with a film that owes more to Hitchcock's sense of timing and build-up than Jan DeBont.
This film does what so few seem to and that is they give their audience credit for having a brain. There are a million little details and many of them don't appear until after you've seen the film and are discussing it with a friend afterward. Like the fact that the kid doesn't want his mom to worry about how the kids in school are treating him and so he bribes one of his classmates to pretend to be his friend and pays the other kid off in Pop Tarts.
There are a few points I thought could have been made a little more clearly or more effectively but I didn't say this was a perfect movie, just a great one.
A solid 10.