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Sixth
Sense, The
(1999) |
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Forget Phantom Menace, American Beauty, Austin Powers, Runaway Bride, even The Blair Witch for a moment. 1999 was the year of The Sixth Sense - a film that crept up on an unsuspecting audience and ended up among the ten biggest ever money earners in cinema history.
This was a movie that no one had heard of before it opened in the first weekend of August. It was a movie that featured nowhere on the "must watch" lists that pop up all over the media. Yet, the film had an absolutely amazing run at the Box Office, remaining top dog for at least as many weeks as Titanic did. Clearly there was something about it that clicked with audiences in a massive way, not only in the US, but subsequently all over the world. Our first experience of the film was in trailer form about a week before it opened. The trailer did nothing for us at all and we decided to watch the fantastic Lake Placid twice in our short stay in New York rather then attend the preview shows of 6th sense that were being screened at various theaters in the city. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we finally got to see it, in the finest of theatres in Paris whole 7 months later after it had become the phenomenon that it had. Fortunately and quite amazingly we had managed to avoid the "twist" ending and went in with high expectations if no previous knowledge of the twist at the end of the movie. The overwhelming feeling at the end of the movie was "what was all the fuss about." Though undoubtedly cleverly constructed and with a refreshing amount of restraint by virtually rookie director Night (!) Shyamalan, the film comes across as a gushing, enormously over-sentimental tale of touching relationships, communication breakdown and what not. Shyamalan has imported his own brand of desi Indian sentimentality to proceedings and evidently people lapped it up like never before. The acting of Haley Joel Osment is excellent for one of such tender age. Bruce Willis does a job and it's a bit of a joke when Toni Collette receives an Oscar nomination for her role as tormented, confused mother. She does an adequate job, but worthy of an Oscar nomination ? Though Shyamalan credits Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist as films he had in mind as inspiration while dealing with his own film, none of the suspense and tension that were so palpable in those movies is tanglible here. The director manages to evoke a feeling of some bleakness and certain uneasiness but never close to the tension charged atmosphere of The Exorcist or indeed the reeling paranoia of Rosemary's Baby. The film builds quite nicely to its "killer" twist but hardly in the way one would expect of what is supposedly a supernatural thriller. It unfolds much more like an uplifting emotional drama where our characters confront their personal demons and manage to fight their battles and come out winners. Everything ties up nicely and the last scene with Bruce and his wife would have people reaching for yet another tissue rather than another nail to chew upon. It's certainly a well crafted film, technically flawless and quite well acted but for those expecting a supernatural chiller rather than an emotionally uplifting drama may come out less than satisfied. The Sixth Sense is not particularly frightening though, so for those of you expecting an exercise in fear and tension, look elsewhere. It is a sober, sentimental sort of tale where ordinary good folks manage to come to terms with those things that torment them. Interesting if less than inspired, mushy, and alas seriously uplifting rather typical Hollywood package. Seriously over-rated.
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