The Sixth Sense (1999)
directed by M. Night Shyamalan
★★★★☆
I think it’s safe to assume that by now, most people who’ve heard of The Sixth Sense already know how it ends. I know I did. But knowing the ending does not spoil what is a magnificent and intriguing suspense-thriller.
Bruce Willis plays Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist who is attacked in his home one night by a former patient he failed to help years ago. A few months after this violent encounter, he finds himself helping Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment in his breakthrough role), another child with many of the same symptoms as the patient who confronted him earlier. He is determined not to repeat his same mistakes and to find a treatment that will work for Cole.
After several visits, and a few strange and frightening encounters, Cole reveals to Malcolm what his problem is: (say it with me now) he sees dead people. To be more specific, the ghosts of people who met tragic or violent ends come to him and try to communicate with him, but he’s the only one who can see and hear these ghosts. Malcolm struggles to believe this, but knows he has to help Cole cope with these sights and sounds that haunt him. This takes us down a few paths of mystery, with light jump scares and some disturbing imagery, as Malcolm learns to trust Cole’s senses, and Cole learns to communicate with and understand the ghosts who are reaching out to him.
The ghosts can be unsettling, as their appearance reflects the way they died, and they often appear with a jump scare. And although The Sixth Sense is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, it’s not really scary or gory. This is a PG-13 movie, after all. If you already know the twist, it’s still worth watching at least once. If you’ve already watched it once, it’s worth seeing again so you can pick out the clues that give the twist away.
The Sixth Sense is probably not going to be a movie you will want to watch over and over again. It’s not fun or funny. It’s not a feel-good movie. But at just a little over 100 minutes, it’s not going to waste your time and you’ll see why this was such an acclaimed film when it came out, having been nominated for six Academy Awards.
