Guest Author - Peggy Maddox

Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Bruce Willis as Dr. Malcolm Crowe
Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear
Toni Collette as his mother Lynn Sear
Olivia Williams as Anne Crowe
Donnie Wahlberg as Vincent Grey

Not everyone sees the great movies as soon as they come out. When a movie is really great, the wait doesn't matter. I admit without embarrassment that I just saw The Sixth Sense (1999) for the first time.

Technically The Sixth Sense is a horror movie. It is scary in that there are scenes that make you jump, but it is more than a horror flick. The characters are more than targets or victims. They are human beings enmeshed in relationships.

Malcolm Crowe is a successful child psychologist who has helped many children, but failed dramatically with a boy who grows up to commit suicide. Filled with remorse, Crowe makes the effort to help another child who is suffering the same symptoms as the boy he failed to help years before.

Cole Sear sees the spirits of people who have died, but who are unable to move on because of unfinished business. He fears to tell his mother, who struggles to treat him normally, despite his strange behavior.

Bruce Willis gets top billing. He gives his usual excellent performance, but in my mind, Osment is the star of this movie. Eleven years old in 1999, Osment turns in a superb performance as a troubled child who is called upon to be mature beyond his years. He did receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor but lost out to Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules).

The Sixth Sense received five other Oscar nominations: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Toni Collette as Cole's understanding mother), Best Director, Best Editing (Andrew Mondshein), Best Picture, and Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

Shyamalan's playing out the thread of the story is expertly done. Most of the time, to the frequent annoyance of my moving-going companions, I can see the plot twists coming a mile away. Not this time. I was completely deceived until he was ready to give it away.

Like the best mystery writers, Shyamalan plays completely fair, putting all the clues one could ask for in plain sight, but throwing in plenty of red herrings to prevent the viewer, engrossed in the story, from seeing them. When the revelation comes, one is surprised but not annoyed because all falls into place and makes perfect sense.

If, like me, you've managed not to see The Sixth Sense as yet, treat yourself.

If you have seen it, watch it again and see how Shyamalan pulls it off. I plan to.