The Sixth Sense (1999)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Had I seen this before: Yes
A few things up top: 1) I did see this movie pretty soon after it came out, but not soon enough to not have the ending spoiled for me, so I've only ever watched it with an eye toward whether the setup works; 2) it does; 3) despite the marketing, this is not actually a horror movie, it's a weepy family drama with a couple of jump scares; 4) if you have a chance to watch this with a 13-year-old who doesn't know anything about it, I can't recommend highly enough that you do that, it was truly one of the most fun movie-watching experiences of my adult life.
I think for those of us who are not adolescents it can be hard to approach this movie without being weighed down by a couple of decades of pop-culture and director-nonsense baggage surrounding it. If you have seen Shyamalan indulge his worst impulses in later films, you can see the warning signs in some places here--a little treacly, a little melodramatic, musical stings a little too obvious, a lack of subtlety with some plot gear-churning, some almost-clunky color symbolism. And the most famous scene--Haley Joel Osment tearfully whispering that he sees dead people--has at this point been parodied six ways to Sunday, which I thought would make it impossible to take seriously. But here's the thing: that scene is really great. Osment and Bruce Willis are both doing terrific work and Shyamalan has done a good job of building slowly to this reveal while also toying with the reveal to come. And in my experience this time around, the whole movie plays like that--I'll be tempted to start rolling my eyes a bit at something and then boom it pulls me right back in, because the real twist if you are a skeptical over-consumer of culture is that this is an amazingly effective movie and a near-unparalleled cinematic magic trick.
I think it's likely that a less-good version of this particular plot setup would still have been successful upon release, but I can't overstate how much the re-watch value depends on the stellar performances from the main cast. Bruce Willis lends Malcom his natural genial cockiness, which is both sort of funny and sort of comforting in the beginning of the movie when the audience is still getting their bearings in this very haunted version of Philadelphia. In his interactions with Osment's Cole, he's believable first as someone who has a lot of experience talking to children in a professional capacity and later as someone who is slowly realizing that he's in over his head in some significant ways. There is also a lot of pathos in his attempts to charm his way through what he believes is a rough patch in his marriage. Toni Collette as Cole's beleaguered mom is the emotional heart of the movie and I think her part might be the hardest to pull off because it requires a range of emotions that could easily veer into the cheesy in less capable hands. The most tear-jerking scene of the movie--when Cole confesses his ghost-seeing secret to her in the car and relays a message to her from her mother--requires her to go from mildly frustrated at being stuck behind a wreck to confused about what Cole is trying to tell her to quietly but intensely alarmed that he is hearing voices that tell him to do things (you can see the words "specialist" and "medication" and "insurance" swimming in her eyes at this point) to shocked and overwhelmed and relieved and sad and happy and grieving all in the space of a few minutes and as far as I'm concerned, she does it. I think "mom with a spooky kid" can be a thankless type of role but everything about her character really works for me, and Collette does a great job establishing her as the third important character in the mix rather than just a foil for Cole's strangeness.
But of course the film largely rests on the wee shoulders of Haley Joel Osment, and boy would this be a tough watch with a less talented kid actor. On first pass, he is successful at selling fear and vulnerability and earned distrustfulness and also a degree of off-putting weirdness that makes you understand, even as you feel sorry for him, why this character doesn't have any friends his age. But watching his performance when you are aware of all the dynamics at play, you realize that what originally seemed like nervous stand-offishness in his face is actually a weary pity for Malcom, and then later a sort of resignation and acceptance that this guy isn't going to leave him alone. And he does that layered bit so well that you don't even know what it was until it's all over. Plus, his delivery of the line "I didn't know you were funny" when Malcom performs an intentionally bad magic trick is truly aces.
I've established my policy on pedantically overthinking movies that involve fantastical elements, which is: I do it when I feel like it. And as much as I really did enjoy the experience of just being on this particular roller-coaster, this is a movie that is deeply aware of its own cleverness and practically begs one, double-dog-dares one to overthink it. So while I believe the Big Twist is solid--I would say one scene edges right up next to a cheat but never crosses the line--there are a couple of bits and bobs that I'm less sure about. For example: the Mischa Barton ghost, who has been poisoned by her own mother, wants Cole to find a video tape under her bed that contains proof of this and show it to her father. So did alive Mischa know that 1) her mother was poisoning her and 2) she had video proof of it? Why wouldn't she have...maybe mentioned that to her father while she was still alive instead of squirreling the tape away in a box under her bed? Is it only because her ghost pushing the box at Cole from under the bed is very spooky? Because it is very spooky! But quietly allowing oneself to be murdered is a pretty significant commitment to the craft of ghosting, especially for an adolescent. I would happily accept that her ghost had access to information that her living brain had been unaware of, and belatedly realized that one of her many puppet show recordings contained evidence of a crime, but this tape was clearly treated differently by her corporeal form. Anyway. The part where she barfs in Cole's tent is a real yeeeeesh moment, I'm not actually complaining about this subplot, not even the very dramatic and unrealistic confrontation at the memorial service. It's all perfect, don't change a thing.
I'm not actually complaining about this next bit either, which is in the so how does this work exactly category re: ghosts in this universe, I'm just wondering. Cole says that all these dead people are wandering around and they don't see each other and they don't realize they're dead ***pointed look at scene partner*** but what about those poor dudes hanging from the rafters of the schoolhouse? Are they conscious and aware like all the other ghosts but like...stuck up there? When Cole sees them they are just looking at him mournfully but I feel like I would be asking if he had any idea how I could get down, just a quick "yooooo can you give me a hand?" And wouldn't "being stuck in a noose for decades" be a strong tip-off that you have died? Listen, I also had this issue with the charming BBC series Ghosts which is basically a workplace comedy about the spirits who are jointly haunting a manor house, as well the two living residents of said manor house, one of whom can see and talk to them and one of whom cannot. When the living couple go to tour other potential domiciles, the wife can still see the various ghosts haunting all of them and it's a very good gag that I enjoyed a lot except in the instance of the two dead German pilots who apparently crash landed in a tree outside the window of one place and just...like, live in the plane? The existential implications of retaining conscious awareness but losing all mobility, like, forever--especially when you are trapped right next to one or two other conscious, aware beings--is almost more than I can take. You should watch Ghosts, though. Try to just hum cheerily through the German pilots, close your eyes, think of England, etc.
And how did Cole know about Stuttering Stanley? He doesn't read minds. That scene implies that someone who knew his teacher as a kid 1) died and 2) made it a priority to find Cole and, instead of addressing whatever unfinished business had tethered their soul to earth, tell him that his teacher had a stutter when he was a kid. Which is a pretty funny, petty thing for a ghost to do actually, so again, I'll allow it. In other questionable ghost behavior, why does his grandmother keep getting him in trouble? She needs to move that bumblebee pendant so badly that she doesn't care that Cole is getting blamed for it? Like, I am also particular about where my things go, but dang Grandma, the kid already has a lot on his plate! Ice cold.
Stray thoughts: 1) I would not go in a church that had a door that red, sorry. Can't be good news in there. 2) I hope that when I have nightmares I say out loud the exact things that are stressing me out in my waking life so that my family members are made aware of where I'm coming from. 3) At one point Malcom is telling a self-deprecating story that involves "I threw up chili cheese fries all over this male nurse" and I don't know why I thought that was such a funny thing to say, but I really did. This male nurse. Not some regular nurse! I threw up on a boy.
Line I repeated quietly to myself: "Keep moving, cheese dick"
Is it under two hours: Yes
Did the twist work: I have known how this movie ends for 23 years and my scalp still got all tingly when that "wait a minute" realization music kicked in
Thing that I will now be avoiding, for safety: Working with children
Vegetable Noodle Soup from The Food Network
Now, I am not a Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy expert, but I like to think that if I were slowly poisoning anyone, I would add the Pine Sol to the soup before I walked in to their room, not just waltz in with it right on the tray and theatrically turn my back to the victim to pour it. I'm just a planner that way. In any case, Anna was pretty adamant about watching me make this soup for some reason.
Up next: Newscasts gone wild
