Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe that someone in limbo is roaming in a room while you work or while you speak? Maybe, maybe not. This week's GREAT SELECTION ties into movies that deal with the afterlife and I believe, The Sixth Sense generated a supernatural thriller genre that got audiences hooked into many ghost stories probably since Ghost. It is a peculiar movie to watch again because even if many people including myself know the plot twist, I asked myself, "How does it hold up as a movie itself disregarding the plot twist? How is the story itself?" And, the movie holds up real well because you still get connected with the characters emotionally.
Now, let's throw back to 1999 in which this thriller premiered. I was still a young lad and a few of my relatives have seen the movie saying that it was a scary but effective movie. And, also, it was a runaway hit back in the day that praised three things: the twist, Haley Joel Osment's performance and M. Night Shyamalan's direction. But, I never knew how much acclaim and earnings it had since it was nominated for many awards including some Oscars. Even without the twist, this movie is still a restrained but chilling film that people will analyze some scenes for clarity and foreshadowing.
Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a gifted psychologist who has just been honored with a plaque for his work by the mayor of Philadelphia. He and his wife, Anna (Olivia Williams) have a fling before a young man, Vincent, (Donnie Wahlberg) appears in a bathroom in his underwear, accusing Crowe of failing him as he is a former child patient haunted with hallucinations. He commits suicide after he shoots Malcolm.
The next day, Malcolm visits 9-year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), another patient whose similar to Vincent's. He is an isolated boy that plays with his action figures in the church. He has somewhat of an emotional relationship with his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette), who truly loves him and worries about his social stamina. There's a remarkable scene in which Malcolm plays a game with Cole regarding his personal life regarding his secrets and his parents' divorce and that sets up the situation beautifully as to who Cole really is and showcases how quietly suspenseful the movie will become.
As Malcolm becomes more detached with his wife, Anna, especially in a scene at a restaurant, he becomes more focused on Cole. In an iconic scene after some traumatic accident, Malcolm visits Cole in his hospital room and reveals that "he sees dead people", who walk around like the living unaware that they are dead. Thinking that Cole is delusional, Malcolm considers dropping the case. But listening to an audiotape from an earlier session with Vincent when he was a child, Malcolm hears a man speaking in Spanish, thinking that he and Cole have the same case. It is terrifying.
If you have seen the movie, you know what happens in the end so even though this is a GREAT SELECTION, I'll still respect the people who have not seen it but if you do not want to know what I will analyze, this will be considered as a potential SPOILER. So, SPOILER ALERT.
This is a carefully restrained and precise craftsmanship of filmmaking by Shyamalan, who carefully picks out each detail from some of Cole's photos when he was a little boy when the mother observes a glimmer of light in each of the photos to Malcolm's clothing to Malcolm's investigation and sessions with Cole. In another suspenseful scene, Cole sees people hung in a hallway and describes it to Malcolm and becomes scared again with Shyamalan setting the scene in one frame zooming in closer but steadily. Shaymalan conveys the fear in Osment's eyes in many of his scenes with such conviction.
When Malcolm realizes that Cole needs to start talking with the dead people because he feels like they have unfinished business, Cole starts to become comfortable especially towards a dead little girl. In a great scene, Cole communicates with one of the ghosts, Kyra (Mischa Barton), as she gives him a present in which a videotape is in the box. Cole gives it to his father at her funeral reception and he knows that Kyra's mother was making her sick by inserting cleaning fluid in her soup. And, afterwards, Cole has saved Kyra's younger sister.
First of all, we all know that Haley Joel Osment gives one of the best child performances ever because we are sympathetic towards his fear of ghosts and he conveys his emotions well as how isolated and scared he is because he has a burden that he will see dead people for the rest of his life. But, I think that Bruce Willis also gives a great but underrated performance because we buy him as a restrained and professional psychologist. It is his chemistry with Osment that carries the whole movie. The movie almost treats itself as a Hitchockian thriller in a way.
Shayamalan knows what he is doing to persuade the audience to pay close attention. We observe how graphic the makeup of the dead people are, the score by James Newton Howard, the camerawork and the details in how Malcolm is dressed, acting and communicating with not just Cole but with different people. It is not a cliche until his later films. Even without giving it away, the last scene ends perfectly as to how we, the audience, realize the whole truth. It paints the whole story and tone real well with a signature by Shayamalan. It is one of his two great movies.
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