It becomes another movie upon a second viewing; and that's great!

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2013)

Though this movie has been out quite a while now, I still feel the need to advise you that there will be spoilers in this review.
What I loved most about this movie didn't even happen the first time I watched it; it happened the second time! Malcolm, in my first viewing, seemed like a good guy who was using Cole as a surrogate for a mistake he made with a previous child. The movie seemed like Malcolm felt if he could help Cole, it would be like helping the previous child he originally "failed." And Cole, in my first viewing, seemed like a child with a secret that he did not trust Malcolm with. Then we find out that Cole sees dead people, and that Malcolm had been dead for most of the movie.
That first viewing was incredibly satisfying. Then, some months later, I watched it with a friend who had not yet seen it. And in that second viewing I experienced a whole new movie. Now it was about a ghost unable to accept the failure that cost him his life, and a boy who did not understand why was trying to understand why this ghost was trying to be more helpful than the other ones; and how they each helped the other to come to terms and accept what they were.
Very rarely does a movie give me such an experience, and that is why I have always made it a movie that I have had in VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray.