Stars: Bruce Willis (Dr. Malcolm Crowe), Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear), Toni Collette (Lynn Sear), Olivia Williams (Anna Crowe)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Awards / Honors
- 6 Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Haley Joel Osment), Best Supporting Actress (Toni Collette), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Film Editing
- #60 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list (2001)
- #44 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list - "I see dead people." (2005)
- #89 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list (2007)
Genre: Suspense / Horror
Running Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes
Format: DVD, Blu-Ray
Odyssey Rating: 4 1/4 Stars (John - 5 Stars, Beth - 4 Stars, Jon - 4 Stars, Becky - 4 Stars)
John's Take
We were happy to have Official Friends of Beth and John’s Movie Odyssey, Jon and his wife Becky join us during our screening of The Sixth Sense. The four of us had all seen the movie before, but as with most things, sharing the event with friends always makes things more fun.
The Sixth Sense is a “twist” movie. As I have said before, I don’t think that it is necessary to post “spoiler warnings” on a film that is over 10 years old. That being said, there is no point in giving things away needless either. So, hopefully without spoiling the story, here are the things I liked about the movie:
1. Bruce Willis
He absolutely nails the role of Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Sure, occasionally delivers the his lines as if he is John McClane - Child Psychologist, and he looks a wee bit old to be married to Olivia Williams (who is about 14 years his junior), but it the fact that Bruce has mastered the “everyday-guy-who-is-in-a-little-over-his-head-but stays-calm-and figures-out-what-to-do” role that makes everything work. All the things that had happened to Willis up until this point – a bit of a career slump, marital problems (he and Demi Moore would divorce almost exactly a year after the movie was released), tagged as an “action film star” – actually help him here. As the story is unfolding, you completely buy him as a guy that was on top of the world, but it all fell apart and now is desperate to find a way to make it all right. Well, that was Willis then, wasn’t it?
Is there any other actor that could pull off this role? I don’t think so. The whole film relies on our pre-conceived notions of what to expect from a Bruce Willis film (i.e., Die Hard) to help hide the twist. Then when the twist occurs, Bruce’s mastery of playing the “every-man” totally makes us believe that he didn’t realize what was going on the whole time. What major star at the time could pull that off? Costner? Cage? Travolta? Not really seeing it.
I am going to go on record right now and saying that as an actor, Bruce Willis is an under-appreciated national treasure. I would go on to say that he is this generation’s John Wayne. Yes, you read that right. Like Wayne, not every film he has been in has been great, but every film he has been in has been better because of his involvement. Who else plays that role in Pulp Fiction, the various Die Hard films, The Fifth Element, or Armageddon? And don’t bother bring up Hudson Hawk. First, that movie isn’t nearly as bad as people like harp about. Second, even John Wayne made the mistake of playing Genghis Khan once so everyone deserves a mulligan now and then.
2. The Scary Scenes
As I mentioned in the Frankenstein post, I am pretty much a wuss when it comes to horror movies, so I may not be good at commenting on a horror movie, but overall I felt that the scary scenes were pretty good. I sure a great number of horror movie aficionados out there might find the scenes a little tame, but I found them to be sufficiently scary to make me jump. In particular, the kitchen scene early on with Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette is surprisingly scary for scene in which basically you see nothing happen. My only beef was the car accident scene near the end where Collette finally starts to grasp what is going on. It just came off a little too pat for me – she just goes from being skeptical and having no clue to complete and utter acceptance too quickly. It is was a by-product of the rest of the movie I know – needing to keep the twist under wraps for as long as possible, the need to re-establish the mother / son bond for the happy ending, etc., etc. It just gave off a “the movie is ending and we need to wrap this up quickly” feel for me, however.
3. The Supporting Cast
Everyone was great; everybody worked well and blah, blah, blah. You don't need a laundry list; there wasn't a subpar performance in the movie (Toni Collette was particularly believable as the mother). We even had a cameo appearance of director M. Night. On a side note, a director appearing in their own film is sort of a cute touch but lately there is way too much of it. M. Night is in all of his films; Jon Favreau is many of his films (such as Happy Hogan in the Iron Man films); Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez show up on screen a great deal, usually in each other’s films but it is the same concept. Guys, please, just because Hitchcock did it, doesn’t mean you have to do it too – just saying.
Of course, the one real standout that everyone remembers the first time they see the film is Haley Joel Osment as the little boy, Cole. He was very good, and despite the fact that he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, now that 10+ yeas have past, and since I started to re-think about this movie, a few things have come to mind that is making me reexamine his performance somewhat.
First, all child actors are cute and articulate. Think about it. The whole point of casting departments is to spend their time weeding out everyone but the best and the brightest children to be in television and movies. Only the best of the best, ever appear on screen, and add in the fact that as human beings we are genetically and anthropologically predisposed to like and want to care for children, it comes as no surprise that we are drawn to the performance of child actors.
Second, take a hard look at the other performances, such as A.I., Secondhand Lions, or Pay it Forward. His job, simply make the audiences feel for his character, which he does to some degree with his acting, but largely pulls off because he is cute kid. Don’t think so? Have you ever gone “ohh, ahh” at a baby before? If you have, then re-think your opinion of Osment’s performance because the baby is evoking an emotional response from you and it just lying there. Again, as a species we are predisposed to like children.
Lastly, what has he done since he has stopped being a cute little kid? He is 22 years-old or so now, and the last thing I heard about him was getting busted for drunk driving and drug possession, back in 2006. I am sure he went to school, went on dates, etc., during this down time, and maybe he isn’t even interested in acting anymore, I don’t know, but I think if I was him I would be desperately trying to wake my agent out of his coma.
It may sound like I am picking on Osment a little bit, and maybe I am. After all, he is great in this film. However, I also think that it illustrates why it is important to go back and re-visit films from time to time. For a period of about three years or so, Haley Joel Osment was one of the biggest stars around. My hero in the film watching business, Roger Ebert, even claimed once that: Osment was “one of the best actors now working". Would he write that now, 10 years later? I am not so sure.
4. The Little Nuances
This movie was full of them. I won’t spend a lot of time harping about them since you can find plenty of other “reviews” that do. Things like the deliberate use of the color red to depict when the world of the living and the world of the dead are crossing over are the sort of little touches that really push this film into the “classic” category. It is unfortunate that M. Night never quite managed to put it all together in any of his films that follow this one, but it all works for this film at least.
In conclusion, Cole may have seen dead people, but I see The Sixth Sense getting a rating of 5 Stars from me.
John
No comments:
Post a Comment