bruce willis stars as malcolm , an award winning child psychologist who discovers one night that one of his former patients is still suffering from inner demons .
the now grown man breaks into his apartment while he and his wife ( olivia williams from rushmore ) are celebrating his award , shoots malcolm in the stomach , then takes his own life .
almost nine months later , malcolm discovers cole ( haley joel osment , in a brilliant performance ) ,
another young man afflicted with the same turmoil as his former patient .
he takes on the child 's case in the hope of redeeming himself for botching up the previous one , alienating his wife in the process .
he soon discovers that they boy can see and speak to the dead , and his life becomes forever turned upside down .
although the first hour is very slow , the sixth sense turns out to be a very powerful and moving film .
i was expecting this film to be mercury rising 2 , but was astonished to discover an extremely well plotted out little thriller with an outstandingly satisfying ending .
you 'll find yourself mentally retracing your steps through the film to see if you actually saw what you think you did once the credits roll .
i must give m . night shyamalan a lot of credit for a brilliantly written screenplay .
the cast should also be given a lot of credit for making the movie as solid as it is .
a lesser cast could have made this film a joke .
bruce willis portrays his character perfectly , balancing his need to help cole and his agony over his strained relationship with his wife skillfully .
haley joel osment shines as nine year old cole , showing patience in his character that few young actors these days can pull off .
toni collette , looking markedly different from her pathetic character in muriel 's wedding , gives a strong performance as cole 's mother , who is trying to cope with both her son 's " illness " and the passing of her mother .
finally , olivia williams deftly portrays a woman having to struggle with a husband who 's not around and flirtations with a co - worker that could lead to a begrudgingly accepted end .
it 's a shame that they show cole 's abilities in the trailer , because the movie takes close to forty minutes to get around to doing the same , so we already know what 's going on before most of the rest of the cast does .
in retrospect though , the forty minute set - up is essential to enjoying the end of the film , so i have fewer complaints now
then i did while i was watching the film .
i 'm glad that the run of teen - styled horror films has passed and filmmakers are starting to make more adult fare .
films like this ,
the similarly themed stir of echoes , and countless others to be released later in the year should make for a pretty entertaining close to 1999 .
[ pg-13 ]
the cast should also be given a lot of credit for making the movie as solid as it is portrays his character perfectly an outstandingly satisfying ending an extremely well plotted out turns out to be a very powerful and moving film gives a strong performance a brilliantly written screenplay