from Buena Vista
Directed by
M. Night Shyamalan
Starring
Bruce Willis (Malcolm Crowe)
Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear)
Toni Collette (Lynn Sear)
Olivia Williams (Anna Crowe)
Donnie Wahlberg (Vincent Gray)
Mischa Barton (Kyra Collins)
Trevor Morgan (Tommy Tommisimo)
Jose L. Rodriguez (Husband)
M. Night Shyamalan (Dr. Hill)
Written by
M. Night Shyamalan
Music by
James Newton Howard |
The Sixth Sense
Rated PG-13 for intense thematic materials and violent images
106 minutes
 "The Sixth Sense"
is such a nice movie on so many levels. It is nice to see Bruce
Willis in a movie where he isn't an action hero. It is nice to
see a child actor who can really act at a level with the grownups.
It is so nice to see a movie that is not a loosely-veiled remake
of another movie. And, it is nice to see a movie that is so tightly
written and well-acted that you get a nice surprise at the end.
Bruce Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a decorated child psychologist
who is going through a rough stretch in his life. He is shot
by a former patient who intrudes into his house, his relationship
with his wife is on the rocks, and he is beginning to question
how good he really is at his job. His new patient, Cole Sear
(Haley Joel Osment) is a deeply disturbed little boy who is anxious,
and scared, and exhibiting all the hallmarks of schizophrenia.
But Malcolm Crowe sees in Cole a way to redo a wrong that he
feels he did to a former patient. Cole is very secretive at first
and Crowe seeks to gain his trust and only after a time does
he find out that Cole "sees dead people". Not only
does he see them, but they also talk to him and want him to do
things. Crowe is down-hearted because he believes Cole is more
deeply disturbed than he once thought but as he spends more time
with him, Crowe starts to believe what he says is true.
Bruce Willis seems to act well with children and doesn't let
them upstage him like other actors tend to do. We all know the
old actor adage, "never act with children or pets".
Willis and Haley Joel Osment have very good chemistry together,
a really nice father/son thing that is very believable on the
screen. Osment is very convincing and very creepy as the little
boy who sees dead people. Hopefully his part in "The Sixth
Sense" will get him more movies and he will be able to find
a spot in the industry that seems to be so elusive for many child
actors. If this is any indication of his talent I think he will
go far.
"The Sixth Sense" is so well written and acted that
it will probably be on my list of favorite movies for 1999. It
is hard to find a movie that is like "The Sixth Sense"
to compare it to that is both scary and poignant at the same
time. I guess the one movie I could compare it to is "Ghost".
Hopefully "The Sixth Sense" will stand the test of
time as well.
Trina Ernst
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