The Othersby Barb Lien-CooperReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Studio
Credits Grade: 7 After seeing Abre Los Ojos and Thesis, I decided that director Alejandro Amenabar was one of the most exciting young directors working out there today. So, even though Hollywood tends to chew up talented young directors faster than mainstream comics ruin indie creators that agree to work for them, I decided to go see The Others, Amenabar's first Hollywood studio connected effort. Happily, I was not disappointed with the film. As a matter of fact, I left the movie happy because it proved to me that not all indie director/Hollywood team ups have to end up muddled messes. While The Others is less openly audacious than its indie predecessors, it has a quiet power of its own that makes it a worthy sister film to Amenabar's earlier efforts.The plot: Nicole Kidman lives with her kids in an isolated part of England during World War II, waiting for her husband, who is missing in action. The kids have a medical condition that makes direct sunlight nearly deadly for them. The house, therefore, must always be curtained. The servants seemed to have disappeared in the night, only to be replaced by three new ones that have links to the house's past. In addition to these weird events, the children claim the house is haunted by "The Others". The Others is basically a smooshing together of The Turn of the Screw (as evidenced by the movie The Innocents), The Sixth Sense, and 1940s film The Uninvited, but the graft is so cleverly done, the movie takes on a life of its own. The film is helped a lot by the acting. Everyone is great in this film. The children are, by turns, innocent, cheerful, sassy, devious, mouthy, and mysterious. The servants radiate vibrations that are both sympathetic, yet sinister. The real star amongst the stars, though, is Nicole Kidman. Believe me, I have formerly had no love for this woman's acting. Her icy blondeness always left me cold, even in To Die For. The Others by neccessity rises or falls on her performance. She rises to the task in such a way that makes me wonder if Hollywood has just been misusing her talents. Kidman's role as the British mother character is a thin veneer of politeness that covers a deep well of hysteria and neurosis. She vainly tries to hold her world together by using Catholicism as a weapon. The worse her life gets, the more cruelly she shoves religion down her children's throats. One thing the audience is certain of is that in the case of this haunted house, catecism memorization is going to be of no use whatsoever. Kidman risks being seen as a royal bitch to the audience, only to pull out the trump card later. The woman we saw as unsympathetic is actually someone who wants to do right by her children, but is so on the edge of a nervous breakdown, she loses conception of what right and wrong are. As a horror movie per se, the film is a bit too subtle and polite for most horror viewers. Amenabar trades real shocks for a pervasive mood of dread. As horror per se, it may not totally succeed. But, as an intelligent drama with supernatural overtones instead of outright horror, the movie succeeds much better than the ponderously paced film The Sixth Sense (which was somewhat over-rated). The movie works best in the movie theatre (I saw it at a discount theatre) with a sympathetic audience. But, baring that, it's worth seeing on video or DVD. Written: April 22, 2002
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