You should know better than to trust the opinions of the viewing public...

Rating: Null/10 (10 October 2004)

...because despite the fact that I saw the twist coming about 30 seconds into the movie, this was a fantastic movie. I think the reason for the transparency was that we've now come to expect the twist, and so we're looking for it. The most surprising thing that MNS could do is make a movie with no twist at all.
But set that aside for a moment. Let's talk a bit about the performances, which are uniformly magnificent, and sadly, all of them are lost in the overwhelmingly negative hype the film has received. Particularly great are J. Pheonix (I can never remember how to spell that name), Bryce Howard, and especially Adrien Brody.
Portraying the mentally challenged seems to be a rite of passage for all serious Hollywood actors, and here Brody does his turn at it with panache, keeping you sympathetic even when you're recoiling in horror.
Bryce Howard, in what appears to be her first major adult role, is both talented and beautiful, and her next project is a Lars Von Trier film, which is the most exciting fact I've heard in ages.
I've never been a particular fan of Pheonix, but he's fine here, playing the brave loner. All of these roles evoke boatloads of pathos, and even when the script takes a turn for the ridiculous, I was completely caught up in the humanity of the characters.
Anyways, the problem, as with The Others, is actually not one of quality, but of context: Had this film come out before The Sixth Sense, it would have been regarded as fantastic, but I think that at this point, Shyamalan has now both codified and exhausted the "twist film" genre. However, I believe that if he can move beyond this singular limitation, he has several truly landmark films in him. He's far too talented and unique not to.