Yet another frantic psychological thriller which has captivated the hearts of many. Some people also like to put the film under the category of a ghost story. As the character, Cole Sear, an eight-year-old, has terrifying visitations from some other dimension in which he can see the dead walking around like the living. We will talk more about this in the plot section. Let’s discuss the cast a little bit.
Cast
The cast always has both good and bad characters. Let’s talk about a few. Malcolm is a good doctor. He has put his work before any other thing or any other person, even his wife. He had devoted himself in helping the kids to cope up with their disabilities.
Cole is one of Malcolm’s patient which he tries to help with all that he has got because just before he gets to treat Cole, he has failed one of his client Vincent. Now, as we talked earlier Cole has some kind of visitations from the dead. So, Cole is always a little scared.
An Insight
So, the story about a small-town Philadelphia where a child psychologist Malcolm encounters one of his previous clients, Vincent Grey who breaks into his house and is agitated that Malcolm could not help him. Vincent then shoots Malcolm and commits suicide thereafter.
Then Malcolm starts working with this little boy, Cole whose case is somewhat similar to that of Vincent’s. That’s why Malcolm puts all the efforts to help this boy as thinks by helping this one he can actually help Vincent. Meanwhile, Malcolm and his wife barely speak with each other, even on their anniversary. Malcolm visits Cole in the hospital and tries to make him sleep, which is quite frankly not one of his best traits. Cole feels comfortable with him now and shares his secret that he can see ghosts walking around like the living without even knowing that they are dead.
Malcolm reports that Cole is suffering from visual hallucinations which are paranoid. Cole now sees a woman at his house who is actually dead and hides in the tent made by him which has a lot of statues of Jesus and Mother Mary along with the soldiers he plays with. Malcolm refers to the case of Vincent to help Cole. He digs and finds out that Vincent also had the same ability to see dead beings.
So, he suggests Cole not to be afraid of them but to communicate with them and help them finish their respective businesses. Cole sees some more dead people at the school while Malcolm comforts him. Cole hears someone weeping and goes to see if his mother is well. He finds out that this was a dead girl named Kyra. Cole goes to her funeral with Malcolm where he finds a tape. In the tape was proof that Kyra’s mother poisoned her. Cole gives this tape to Kyra’s father. By doing this he saved Kyra’s younger sister whom her mother was going to kill after Kyra.
The Acceptance
Cole tries to adjust with the whole ghost thing, he finally tells his mother that he has this special ability to see ghosts and talk to them. He also tells her that the answer to the question she has been asking at her mother’s grave is “Every day”.
Now comes the most alluring part or you can say the twist of the movie where Malcolm returns home and finds his wife asleep and she was asking him why did he leave her. He then figures out that he has been dead the whole time by the gunshot that Vincent fired at him. He could find the wound and also realizes that he was wearing the same clothes since then. And with Cole’s help, he could finish his unfinished business to help Vincent. Malcolm then tells his wife that he loves her and now since he has nothing else to do, his soul rests to peace.
Direction
Yet another remarkable work done by Shyamalan. In recent years, we have some more splendid work by him such as Split, The Visit and the list is long. The story line stuck to the base all along. People will never get bored not even for a second. The urge to know what’s coming next was there till the end of the movie. Surely the director and the producers had done their homework whole-heartedly. That’s one of the many reasons why the movie has won so many awards including Nebula Award for Best Script, Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay and many more.
The production team has been very peculiar about Malcolm’s dressing and they also felt that when Cole tells Malcolm that he can see ghosts, this could actually give many people a hint of the climax but they made the decision to keep it anyway.
Box Office and Critics
The movie, because of it’s amazing plot and the acting stayed the No. 1 film at the U.S. box office for five weeks. The film had an initial production budget of $40 million. It made a business of $672,806,292 worldwide. It made over $26.6 million in the weekend it was launched. So, we can make out that the movie was a huge success and will always remain in the top-10 for all of us.
The movie was the second-highest-grossing film of 1999. Apart from winning the hearts of many, it also won many awards some of which I shared before let me share a few more. Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer, People’s Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Star In A Drama. Surely, not every adult can act with a kid such intense scenes with such perfection like Bruce Willis. Those scenes give the movie an extra weight. “The Sixth Sense” has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly.