Summary
Malcolm (Willis, Unbreakable), a troubled child psychologist, works with a young boy, Cole (Osment, AI: Artificial Intelligence), who exhibits all of the same problems another boy Malcom once failed to help. When this 'second chance’ takes a disturbing supernatural turn, will Malcom be able to help Cole or fail once again?
The Year Was 1999 (and spoilers were still car accessories)
I was almost a Sophomore in High School and was just beginning to stretch my legs down to the gas pedal in my parents car. I had been finding myself at the movie theater more and more often and once again my new found freedom had driven me to the multiplex a few miles from my house.
As I sat in the theater I experienced something completely unique. I saw “The Sixth Sense,” on opening weekend, unspoiled.
It seems silly of me to give a SPOILER ALERT for this film since it is a little like spoiling Citizen Kane at this point, but as I saw it without knowing what was coming, if there is even a chance that you don’t know how this movie ends yet, please stop reading and see the film before reading on.
As the credits rolled the questions began piling up. ‘Wait. If he was dead the whole time what about that scene where… and that conversation with..." I knew I would have to see it again to rewatch with new eyes.
When I left the theater, I couldn’t wait to get to school and tell all of my friends that they had to see this movie. The twist at the end was so crazy, weird, and amazing, they just had to go. Some would go see it. Others remained unconvinced, but I had found a film I was so excited about that I wanted to tell other people about it and evangelize. I wanted to see it in the theater again, and I did. It was the first film I saw twice in theaters.
M. Night Shyamalan was the first director’s name I ‘discovered’ for myself. It is a special film to me.
When I hear people from the previous generation talk about seeing “Star Wars” in the theater for the first time, I realize that as much as I love “Star Wars,” I will never get to see it as they did. That’s how I feel about “The Sixth Sense.” By the time most people saw it, they knew the ending, but not me and a few of my friends. We got to be genuinely BLOWN AWAY by the revelation that Bruce Willis had been dead the whole time.
My Thoughts
Obviously, there is no way for me to be objective about a film that was a part of my awakening as a cinephile, but it wasn't just a subjective emotion that made this film attractive to a young audience member like myself.
The acting in the film is top notch. Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette (Hereditary) both received best performance nominations at the Academy awards and both deserved them. Even Bruce Willis, in a very reserved role, pondering and silently observing, does a remarkably good job bringing a sense of the character's reality to the screen.
Although the cast is small and upon rewatching, the film feels anemic at times, it is only when you know the story and are watching for it that you sense that we aren't seeing reality all of the time. I place the credit for that feat on the actors for creating expressions of these characters that would not allow you to think of them as anything except real people who were captivatingly interesting.
The Storytelling is, of course, unique, or it was. Today, people may make jokes about the 'Shyamalan Twist' but at the time, it was a shock to end the film with a scene that made you rethink everything that had happened in the whole movie. To set everything into the story so carefully and precisely that people didn't see it coming was a feat, but to do it in such a way that you watch it a second time and think 'How did I not know? It hardly feels like he's trying to hide it,' is simply mind blowing to me.
Verdict
While I do love this movie, I do feel it has less to offer than some of Shyamalan's other offerings. As it has probably been spoiled for you anyway, I would suggest maybe trying one of his other films with more rounded out themes. Perhaps, one with twists that are not quite so much the main feature of the film but rather, supporters of the film.
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