THE SIXTH SENSE movie review

         According to IMBd, M. Night Shyamalan is an Indian screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots including The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and The Happening (2008). He is born in India (6 August 1970) and known for filming and setting his movies in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was raised. His passion for filmmaking began when he was given a Super-8 camera at age eight, and even at that young age began to model his career on that of his idol, Steven Spielberg. His first film, Praying with Anger (1992), was based somewhat on his own trip back to visit the India of his birth. He raised all the funds for this project, in addition to directing, producing and starring in it. Wide Awake (1998), his second film, he wrote and directed, and shot it in the Philadelphia-area Catholic school he once attended--even though his family was of a different religion, they sent him to that school because of its strict discipline.

       His trademark is having some sort of twist in the end or surprise ending in his films, The Sixth Sense (1999) is a very good example. Other than that, many of his films involve two ordinary individuals with extraordinary abilities or events happening to them. In The Sixth Sense, Cole has ghost eyes and Malcolm is a bestowed child psychologist. In his film, one of the people either has connections to a child or is a child, and the one connected to the child is always having marital difficulties. His films contain widowed spouses or struggling/abandoned marriages; Anna Crowe in The Sixth Sense was a widow. He also likes to make little appearances in his own movies, like Dr. Hill in The Sixth Sense. Car crashes play pivotal roles in all his films: Cole reveals his gift to his mother during a traffic jam in The Sixth Sense. He uses water as a sign of death or weakness; in The Sixth Sense (1999), Vincent is hiding in a bathroom and kills Dr. Malcolm.

         Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist which his contribution is recognized by the Mayor. When he is celebrating with his wife, a teenager, Vincent who was a patient to the doctor intruded into the house and then kill the doctor and himself. One year later, the doctor met a boy, Cole who shares similarities with Vincent and makes the doctor decided to help him as he do not want to repeat his mistake. At the beginning, the boy refuses to tell the doctor his secret as he thinks that he cannot help him. As his age, he is disappointed by the people around him as people don’t understand his feeling and think that he is a freak, so he chooses to hide this as secret from people including his mother. After the doctor get along with the boy, when trust is built, in the hospital, the boy tell the doctor that he can see ghosts. But this is too shocking to the doctor as he is educated and he don’t believe the existence of ghost in this world and assume Cole is having visual hallucinations, paranoia and school age schizophrenia. One day, Cole begs the doctor as the boy thinks that the doctor is the only person who can help him. The doctor listens to his recording with Vincent and found out a vague voice of a man speaking Spanish “I don’t want to die”. The doctor runs to find Cole and help Cole to solve the problem. The doctor helps the boy to understand that the ghosts show themselves because they want to ask help from Cole. Cole listens to the doctor and helps the sick girl. The doctor goes back to his home and sees her wife sleeping on a couch. He talks to his wife and his wife answers him. When he sees the marriage ring drops from her hand, he has flashback of Cole’s words and scenes of the night that he is killed. He sees her wife was having dinner alone, the door is blocked by table and clouds coming out of his wife mouth, and he realize that he is dead. When he figures that out and has words with her wife, he is ready to go now.

           
         According to Merriam-Webster, thriller is a work of fiction or drama designed to hold the interest by the use of high degree of intrigue, adventure, or suspense. According to Oxford dictionary, thriller is a novel, play, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. More interested in suspense, putting you “on the edge of your seat” or in plain terms, making you nervous for the fate of the characters. Horror is defined as painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay; intense aversion or repugnance; repulsive, horrible, or dismal quality or character. A horror movie wants to make you fear for your persona safety, to make you afraid that what happened to the characters may happen to you even after you’ve left the theater. There is an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust in horror movie. As a good horror movie often contains a great deal of suspense and as a good thriller can be pretty scary in spots it’s more down to the intentions of the film maker and the subject matter of the film. 

      The Sixth Sense is a masterful blend of psychological drama and horrific imagery. There are moments when viewers are touched by the emotional relationship between Cole Sear and his mother, and there are moments when viewers are frightened by the disturbing images we are shown. This film is rated PG-13 which means “Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13”. From the beginning of the film, the mysterious feeling in the basement catches the attention of audiences and we follow the camera to the living hall and to the room. When Anna sees pieces of broken glasses and then suddenly a shadow pass by accompany with the shout of Anne, this terrifies the audience as the camera moves to the bathroom and we don’t know what will come out from there. The surrounding is quiet plus the broken glasses, sounds of the phone with unknown person hiding in the room, this creates tension and then feels scared. After that we see a pale teenager who seems harmless but afraid at the beginning. Then he utters “You don’t know so many things”, this cathes the attention of the audience as they don’t know the things Vincent is talking about. Furthermore, if the doctor recognize who is that teenager at this point, the story will become less interesting. When Vincent say “Do you know you are afraid when you are alone?” and the he answer his own questions, this make the audience eyeballs stick to the screen. And then Vincent suddenly outburst and shout, this terrifies us and I think Donnie Wahlberg did a very good job on this role, without him, the beginning will be dull and can’t pull the audience to continue to see the movie.

Other scenes which create a high degree of intrigue are when the cabinets are all opened in the kitchen, Cole acts weirdly in the class, locked in the dungeon, the appearance of Neddy’s wife at midnight, hanging of 3 corpses at the corridor of school, the visiting of the vomiting girl ghost. Different from horror movies, the director didn’t use a lot of blood, ferocious face of the ghost. The director uses sounds, which is loud or quiet which makes the audience uncomfortable. He didn’t use exaggerated technique to terrify the audiences, but the deepest fear of human, like fear of facing darkness, fear of being abandoned, fear of facing the deaths.

     There are four main characters in this film, they are Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis), Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), Toni Collette (Lynn Sear) and Olivia Williams (Anna Crowe).

       
      In this film, Bruce acts as a doctor who is in deep sorrow and regrets; this is the reason why there is always a feeling of helpless and sadness in his eyes. After the incidence of Vincent, his confidence on child psychology is lost and refuses to help Cole with his excuse of problem with his wife. In this film, he acts as a gentle and caring man whom makes us forget that his appearances in many actions films (e.g. Die Hard series). When he found out that he is dead, from his expressions, we can feel his love and care for his wife, he yearns for the past and helpless when facing the reality. When he sees his wife smile, relieved that he has said what he want to say to his wife at the same time, this makes me think of another movie “Ghost” which share similarity with this one. The difference is The Sixth Sense is a thriller, the touching point is not reached by accumulation of emotion but the sudden twist of emotion at the end.

I see people. They don’t know they are dead. How often do you ee them. All the time. They are everywhere. They only see what they want to see.

      This film may star Bruce Willis, but it is Haley Joel Osment's film from start to finish. He's a brilliant young actor who has been great before, but outdoes himself here. Without Haley, this film would be a disaster. At 11, he has shown mature acting skills and he tells stories using his blue eyes. Undoubtfully, his performance in this film makes him nominated as Oscar’s best supporting actor. My favourite play of him will the scene which he tells his secret to the doctor. His watery blue eyes and his acting makes us pity him a lot and he is really good at doing this. Other than a boy who is scared and troubled, he also shows us what a boy should really be in some scenes (chatting with her mom 21:20, sitting in a cart pushed by his mom 59:00, drama which he acts as King Arthur 1:30:00).    

     The chemistry and bond Bruce has with Osment is striking and powerful. There are some scenes where Cole shares his thoughts with Dr. Malcolm make us think that Cole is an adult (scene in the school corridor 57:00 and scene in the church 1:20:00).

What are you thinking , Mama? You think I’m a freak?

Look at my face. I will never think that about you. Ever. Got it?

Got it.

     
    Collette is brilliant as Lynn Sear, and her emotional breakdown is heartbreaking. The central issue here is not the fact that Cole can see ghosts. His relationship with his mother is crucial to the film's success.

     I’m tired in my body, I’m tired in my mind, I’m tired in my heart.

Scenes between them are dramatically charged, and the chemistry between the two is riveting. Toni Collette gives a masterful performance as a woman so desperate to understand her child's problems that she is breaking down emotionally. In what could have been a cliched, mother-beats-child relationship, M. Night Shyamalan ensures that these two are the core of the film's emotions. Cole must hide things from his mother, and it is easy to see that it is tearing both of them apart. It's emotionally gut-wrenching, and their scenes together are the best of the film. Olivia Williams is underused as Willis' wife, though she is great when on screen.

You know why are you afraid when you are alone?

      One role not forget to mention is Vincent; he plays a big role and catch the audience successfully at the beginning of the film. He also leaves a big impact on the doctor and makes him stay in the world and wander for one year until he meets Cole which can help him to correct his mistake. Vincent makes the story goes on and the main factor for the doctor to help the doctor to decide to help Cole. By listening back to the recording with Vincent, Dr. Malcom fined reason to trust Cole and help both Cole and himself to solve their problems.

      The story is told in chronological order. "I see dead people", with four words, the course of the film changes. The Sixth Sense is no longer about the emotional trouble this kid is having. Instead, it's about Malcolm's fight to beat the kid's problems. How does one go about helping a child get over the trauma of seeing dead people--complete with their bloody injuries that they had when they died? Yes, this is a ghost story, but it's also the first ghost story that actually sets out to help the ghosts. Are Malcolm guides Cole to aide these apparitions in the resting of their souls.

      The twist at the end of the film is a classic which is on everybody’s mouth. Much has been said of the climax, in which the plot comes to a screeching halt and sends it off in a completely new direction. It's the ultimate plot twist. Just as the ending of The Usual Suspects shocked us, so it does here.

After the doctor has been shot, we are not sure that the doctor is dead or not but when we see him sitting on a chair in garden in the next scene, we assume that he is still alive but in the ending, we realize that he is a ghost then we abandon the inference we had before. When the doctor is sitting together with Cole’s mother in the room, when the doctor meets his wife in the restaurant, when we see the ending, we will think that it’s very obvious that other than Cole, no people interact with him. The door he can’t open is blocked by a table, when he is shot, blood coming out from his back. Everything we thought we knew turns out to be questionable. It's worthy of a second viewing just to see if it all works out. While there are moments that are logically questionable, everything does work out. The twist is not the point of the film, however. It's merely there to enhance the story, and it works. This twist is not the only point to the story. It's just to make us talk about the film afterwards.

M. Night Shyamalan’s bibliography, retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/m-night-shyamalan-9542296, and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117/bio, on 16 March 2014.