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The Sixth Sense (1999)
Review
M. Night
Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense had every hallmark of a modern
classic when it rolled triumphantly over the world's cinema screens in
1999, and it still does today over twenty years later. The basis for the
success is Shyamalan’s hauntingly beautiful script, which not only
belongs to an ancient ghost-story tradition, but is some sort of
cinematic epitome of it. Stylistically, the film is quiet and
understated. Shyamalan has so much confidence in his own and his actors'
abilities that he never gets tempted into overdoing it. Instead, the
film achieves perfection through gentle simplicity. Whenever there's an
opportunity for emblematic genre-solutions, Shyamalan resists it and
lets his subtle innuendos carry through. And whenever the film's drama
and suspense rests on our affinity and empathy with main character Cole
Sear, little Haley Joel Osment not only repays Shyamalan's faith in him;
he imposes his talent and humanity upon us with such significance that
it will probably never be eclipsed in a part like this. Osment even
lifts Bruce Willis and Toni Collette to career-best performances. And as
the young writer/director Shyamalan wrapped up his picture with a
masterfully elegant ending, he must have known that he had just created
something that would be comparable with Hitchcock's best works for
decades if not centuries.
Re-reviewed:
Copyright © 05.07.2021 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang
Original review:
Copyright
© 23.11.1999 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang |
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