SPOOKY, REALLY SPOOKY: 'The Blair Witch Project' & 'The Sixth Sense'

Commonweal, Sept 24, 1999 by Richard Alleva

The last half of the story is a journey toward two acts of acceptance. First, Dr. Crowe (Bruce Willis) must persuade the child that what seems to be a curse may turn out to be a gift. This is accomplished not through psychiatric treatment but concrete action when Cole becomes the conduit for a little girl seeking justice from beyond the grave. This eerie and luminous sequence is compounded of equal measures of dread and compassion.

Second, Dr. Crowe, haunted by his failure to save an earlier patient similar to Cole, must accept an astonishing fact about his own existence and his relationship to his wife. This leads to a surprise ending so radical that it may prompt you to see the movie again. (I speak from experience: To see The Sixth Sense twice is to see two different movies.)

Though I wish he'd get his hair (or hairpiece) under control, Bruce Willis displays the insinuating power he's capable of whenever he's cast against type. As for Haley Joel Osment as Cole, he's...well, preternatural. I don't know if a ten-year-old can be called a great actor with any certainty, but there's no way so many subtle and precise gradations of emotion could have been evoked strictly by directorial manipulation and clever editing. But if a child pianist can be credited with great technique and emotional insight, why can't an acting prodigy?

The Sixth Sense is both frightening and moving. It is frightening because it is moving.