Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist in Philadelphia. He's recognized with a reward for his work and his wife Anna (Olivia Williams) couldn't be more proud. They go into their bedroom to see someone has broken in. Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg) is a former patient of Malcolm and accuses him of failing to help him. He pulls out a gun and shoots Malcolm before turning the gun on himself.
The next fall, Malcolm observes a 9-year old boy, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment). Malcolm follows him to a church and introduces himself. Cole asks if he's a good doctor and he responds saying he used to be. On his way out, Cole steals a figurine. At home, Cole's mother Lynn (Toni Collette) walks out of the kitchen and returns to all the cabinets and drawers open before Cole leaves for school. Cole comes home from school to see his mother and Malcolm waiting for him. Malcolm plays a mind-reading game with Cole but he ends up walking away.
Malcolm shows up late to dinner with Anna, he rambles as she stays silent. She takes the check and says happy anniversary as she walks out. Cole tells Malcolm he's a freak and he reassures him he isn't. Cole doesn't want to be scared anymore. He ends up in detention after telling the class people were hung in the school. At a classmate's birthday party, he hears voices coming from the attic. The bullies lock him in the attic and he's taken to the hospital. Malcolm visits him and Cole reveals his secret. He sees dead people. He explains they see what they want to see and they don't know they're dead.
Back home, the temperature drops and he sees a woman in his kitchen. The next night, he sees a boy with a gunshot wound on the back of his head. Malcolm suggests Cole listen and help the ghosts. That night, he finds a girl in his tent and speaks to her. They go to the girl's funeral reception and she gives him a box to give to her father. Inside the box is a tape, revealing her mother poisoning her soup.
Cole learns to live with the ghosts he sees and gives Malcolm the idea to talk to his wife in her sleep. Cole and his mother are stuck in traffic and he decides to reveal his secret. To prove it, he tells her a story about his grandmother, who visits him sometimes. He tells his mother she was there for her dance recital and the answer to her question is "every day." He asks what her question was and she says "Do I make her proud?"
Malcolm visits Anna in her sleep watching their wedding video. She asks why he left her and drops the wedding ring. Malcolm remembers what Cole told him about ghosts and the fact he was shot by Vincent, which killed him. He finds the bullet wound, realizing he's still wearing the same clothes, revealing he's been dead the entire time. He tells Anna he loves her and his spirit is engulfed in white light.
The Sixth Sense definitely requires more than one viewing. I remember seeing it for the first time in my father's workshop when I was in middle school. Besides Signs, I had been sheltered from scary movies, but it didn't scare me as much as it made me feel what Cole felt. When he was trapped in the attic and we started to see the ghosts that scared him are the moments I feared. You can't help but feel bad for a kid that can't control his supernatural sense.Once the twist is revealed, you want to go back to find a mistake the filmmakers might have made, making you believe he wasn't actually dead the entire time. Except there are no mistakes. It's perfectly executed to impact first-time viewers just as much as people who have seen it many times. Besides the bedroom scene where Malcolm was shot, the only person who acknowledges him is Cole.
The use of the color red is a major theme representing anything from the real world tainted by the other world. One example when the color red is shown frequently is at the birthday party. A red balloon floats to the top of a spiraling red staircase and Cole is wearing a red sweater when we hear the voices for the first time. Cole's tent is red and hides there when he sees the ghosts. Malcolm's wife wears a red dress for their anniversary. Malcolm tries opening a locked door with a ruby red doorknob.
Haley Joel Osment was perfectly cast as Cole. He tries to be a normal kid and fit in but can't help seeing the dead, causing him to be afraid everywhere he goes. Until the end and with the help of Malcolm, he finds a way to share his secret with his mother. Bruce Willis was in almost every scene, following Cole wherever he went. He realized he wasn't paying enough attention to his wife when he sees her with another man. Olivia Williams does an excellent job in her scenes, showing grief but leaving us wondering if she's ignoring Malcolm. Toni Collette plays the hardworking mother and touches us beautifully in the emotional final act. Donnie Wahlberg plays a minor but important character. He lost 43 pounds for the role, making him appear gaunt and almost unrecognizable.
The Sixth Sense is the third film directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan. It's by far his best film to date, up there with Hitchcock's classics. It's one of the best thrillers ever made and deserves to be seen many times. I highly recommend this film to adults and kids 10 or older.
4/4
Supplements:
Storyboard-to-Film Comparison
The Cast
Rules & Clues
