The Sixth Sense Review

Traumatic events can define moments in people’s lives and it certainly does in the life of the character Dr. Malcolm Crowe played by Bruce Willis in the 1999 movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan when he is paid an unexpected visit from an unhappy former patient who comes back to haunt him. After that monumental night in Malcolm's life, he decides to help a young boy named Cole suffering from similar circumstances that the unhappy patient who visited Malcolm experienced. The plot device used to set a rather awry tone for the movie is the revelation that Malcolm sees people that are dead and the dead people don’t necessarily see each other. In the midst of Malcolm trying to help this boy, his marriage to his wife takes a toll and his devotion to his job as a child psychologist is tested to its limits.

M. Night Shyamalan is an excellent choice of director for this particular picture as the tone he captures and the themes he explores are well executed and set a particularly prominent impression. The prime victim Cole who suffers from psychological torment deems himself a freak and as a result all his relationships suffer especially with his mother played by Toni Collette. The theme Shyamalan explores here is profound and speaks to a very serious problem that is plaguing many kids around the world. The director does his best to warn the audience of the problems going on with many young adolescents who think themselves freaks, outsiders, or outcasts in the world that they inhabit which affects everything they do from how they communicate with others to what they dwell on and so forth. The theme is steeply rooted in a dark and serious tone which I believe Shyamalan intended to create in order to open up the audience’s mind and warn them of the problems kids face and send a message that young kids need to be looked after, mentored and guided to ensure a safe time of growing up and a responsible one too. The cast is deeply entrenched within the environment and effectively elevates the screenplay and the message it is attempting to deliver to its audience.

Bruce Willis has been known for many roles over the years whether it's his famous portrayal as the everyman detective John McClane in the Die Hard series, or his portrayal as a futuristic taxi driver in the cult classic the Fifth Element, or his role as the slacking oil drilling father in Michael Bay’s Armageddon, or Ross’s much younger girlfriend’s father on the popular TV sitcom Friends, his career has been a long and colorful one and his role as Malcolm in the Sixth Sense isn’t any less special. Bruce Willis plays Malcolm on a human level, he creates a believability about him as a serious professional in his field who does his job admirably but yet is plagued by very commonplace but painful problems such as marital problems. Bruce Willis’s grounded take on his character makes for an excellent performance and that comes through in his scenes with Cole played by Haley Joel Osment who he has great chemistry with. As Malcolm interacts with Cole and tries to help him you can visibly see the character thinking and improvising his way through the maze that Cole puts him through as it connected to a painful moment in his life of when he realized he had failed in life. Haley Joel Osment is great as the young boy Cole as he brings an innocence to his portrayal and brings empathy to his character. The themes and messages that are trying to be delivered through the screenplay and by Shyamalan come across great with the cast really bringing those elements to life. Cole’s mom has trouble communicating with her son as she sees something strange in him and can’t get her son to open up and Toni Collette’s performance bolsters that storyline which could have fallen flat. Empathy and emotional connections are made in the relationship amongst Cole and his mom in the picture as she continously reminds Cole he isn’t a freak and as Cole walks through his scary journey his mom seems to be his last grasp on reality. If it wasn’t for the stellar cast the characterizations would have certainly not worked as Shyamalan had intended.

Cole’s journey and Malcolm’s journey in the picture is an extraordinary one but also a scary and ugly one before the path can finally lead to something good out of all the mess that the characters find themselves in. Cole is tormented in his mind but through his counseling with Malcolm he comes to realize that friendship is possible and facing your fears is an important element that will always be needed in life. Malcolm faces his traumatic past in the present with his goal to help Cole and through that faces matters such as denial and personal relationship problems which the cast and Shyamalan do so well in bringing to life and capturing. This picture’s only flaws may be its failure to provide enough comedic levity for the sake of clarity to a wide audience. Because even though many will understand the meaning of the picture and as well executed as it is in reaching a widespread audience some of the members of that community may find the material a bit dense and disturbing and the message of the film could have been made clear with some release from the relentless grim tone, more than it provided. The pacing of the picture is slow and while that's fine there are parts of the film which could have benefited from a faster pace. However these flaws are minor and don’t distract from what Shyamalan and Willis managed to accomplish with this picture.

Too often in Hollywood, you find blockbusters which don’t do anything to provide warnings to society or do anything more than provide an experience that will be forgotten two hours after viewing the movie but this picture captures the heart of being a story that has meaning and sends a message. The electric suspenseful tone is captivating and provides a launching point for great characters without sacrificing thrills. The Sixth Sense is a great suspenseful psychological thriller picture that I am giving a score of 9/10.