Not every gift is a blessing.
Doctor Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a distinguished child psychologist haunted by the painful memory of a disturbed young patient he was unable to help. So when he meets Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) - a frightened, confused 8-year-old with a similar condition - Doctor Crowe seeks to redeem himself by doing everything he can. Nonetheless, Malcolm is unprepared to learn the truth of what haunts Cole: terrifying, unwanted visits from the restless inhabitants of the spirit world! With a riveting intensity you'll find thoroughly chilling and utterly unforgettable, the discovery of Cole's incredible sixth sense leads them both to mysterious and unforeseeable consequences!
Special Agent Matti
Wow.
The sixth sense is a really, really good film. Not only is the story dark and twisty, the humour is like being whipped with a liquorice strip. Bruce gives his best performance ever. He is sad, pained, lost and confused. The key to his believability is subtlety, not an idea which previous directors have latched onto. Haley scared the bejeebers out of my flatmates with his transitions from little boy to... something more. He has an incredible ability to look like he's a thousand years old and that that millennium was none too pretty. Wicked.
Toni is nicely unbalanced as the struggling mother without the means to help her beloved son. Her love for him keeps her there even though he scares the bejeebers out of her. That's hard to do but she does it well.
The script is way minimal for Hollywood, keeping to the first rule of filmmaking: showing is better than telling. There are large portions of silent terror which are much more effective than the stereotypical bunch of horny teenagers running around screaming. It's good to see that M Night isn't afraid to fill the screen with imagery rather than verbosity.
The big twist, that Malcolm is a ghost who doesn't realise that he's dead, is as unexpected as it is appropriate. All through the film there are clues about this which even the cleverest of brains (ie mine) didn't put together until afterward. Cole's therapy is no less effective for being at the hands of a dead person, while his redemption of Malcolm is so poetic that it brings tears to your eyes.The sixth sense is filmmaking at its best. Get this film and believe.
M (Medium level violence, supernatural theme)
103 minutes (1:43 hours)
VHS retail: 1 November 2000
DVD retail: 24 July 2002
VHS retail: 24 July 2002
DVD retail: 4 June 2003 - Special edition
DVD retail: 6 August 2003 - M Night Shyamalan box set
DVD retail: 2 August 2006
