you 've seen this moment before , recently : a particularly troubled character senses danger of the paranormal kind when the room temperature inexplicably plummets to below freezing .
the difference is that when it happens to lili taylor 's nell in the haunting , we do n't care .
the hero of the sixth sense , a young boy named cole , is a rich creation , and we wish nothing more than for the ghosts who haunt him to take a hike .
the seasons have changed since an ex - patient shot jaded child psychologist malcolm crowe ( willis ) in the comfort of his own bedroom .
desperate to get his career back on track , even at the expense of his crumbling marriage ( to williams , of rushmore )
, malcolm councils the deeply troubled cole ( osment ) .
the preteen displays all the quirks of malcolm 's would - be killer :
scars on his body ; antisocial behaviour ; and the reluctance to reveal a big secret .
only after cole is locked in a closet by some bullies ( and hospitalized as a result ) does he divulge to malcolm , in a spine - tingling scene , that he sees dead people walking among us , all the time .
malcolm assumes , and given his profession , reasonably so , that cole is schizophrenic , not psychic , but the sincerity in cole 's anguished confession prevents the doctor from taking drastic measures .
he will instead pursue the supernatural angle , becoming a kind of surrogate father to cole ( who lives with his single mother , lynn ( collette ) ) in the process .
the sixth sense has more in common with ghost than poltergeist .
( though shyamalan does , somewhat unforgiveably , crib the self - rearranging kitchen business from the latter . )
it 's far more heartwarming than frightening , and the film would be none the worse for wear without its few pulp shocks .
cole attracts the dead for reasons unknown , but they 're not out to harm him , really - they just want to be heard , even if it means scaring the bejesus out of the innocent gradeschooler .
perhaps the apparitions seem more ghastly to us , at first , than they really are because we 're looking at the situation through the eyes of an eight - year - old .
that 's right : willis , for the first time in years , gives up the spotlight to his costar .
we appreciate malcolm 's domestic dilemma , but we identify with cole , recalling our fears of the bogeyman or the closet monster or the thing under the bed .
both actors deliver immensely likable performances , and their dynamic is manifest .
willis convinces us that he 's a doctor , something he was unable to do as a horndog shrink in the overheated color of night .
osment is phenomenal , a true professional who resists mugging for the camera like some child stars with too much experience in television commercials do .
the sixth sense ( atmospherically shot by the silence of the lambs ' cinematographer , tak fujimoto ) is actually a drama - its spooky , effective ad campaign is misleading .
only because i was expecting something different
did i notice - rather , feel - the movie 's running time , which is just shy of two hours .
the story unfurls slowly but engrossingly ; its unexpected finish is definitely worth the wait .
i 'm not sure said big twist ending is bulletproof , but i admired its audacity .
their dynamic is manifest a true professional its unexpected finish is definitely worth the wait deliver immensely likable performances phenomenal i admired its audacity atmospherically shot