After seeing "The Phantom Menace", one could conclude that little kids are now cast upon the basis of how adorable they are, rather than how well they can act. "The Sixth Sense" at last reverses this trend. Haley Joel Osment is technically adorable, although his character is sometimes creepy. What makes him special is that he is a child actor who can act. With his luminous eyes and halting, almost whispering voice when telling a dark secret, he can not only put across the notion that he can see the newly dead, but that he is afraid of them and what he might become.
Although Osment is the true male lead, it is Bruce
Willis who gets first billing. He plays a successful
child psychologist whose career has been derailed after
a violent encounter with one of his former patients.
His marriage to sadfaced Anna (Olivia Williams) is also
deteriorating, as he seems unable to reach her. He
focuses his laconic energy on helping his new patient
Cole (Osment), who seems disturbed and is unpopular with
his fellow students. Cole's single mother Lynn (Toni
Collette) struggles to raise him and despairs over his
emotional problems.
While the film moves slowly, we gradually realize that
Cole's stress comes from imagined (or are they?) visions
of dead people. There are also questions of child abuse:
Cole has cuts and bruises; how did he get them? Along
with the quality of the script and acting, there is
enough suspense to compensate for the film's pacing
problems and lack of activity.
Attempts at comic relief don't quite work: a young engaged
couple bicker about an expensive ring, Willis and Osment
exchange gentle wisecracks about Osment's tormenting
classmates. The film also has early vagueness about Cole's
'sixth sense'. Hints that he can levitate objects and see
long past events prove diversionary. The happy ending for
Cole, with his emotional problems resolved and now on
friendly terms with his classmates and teachers, seems a
bit contrived. Still, "The Sixth Sense" is an original
and thoughtful suspense/horror drama, with solid direction
and acting. (62/100)
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