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Bruce Willis: “The Sixth Sense"

 Sometimes, Hollywood forgets to take an interest in families; the action concerns a boy and girl who might date (certainly the story ends on or before the wedding day), or the action concerns male colleagues joining up to take on a male villain.


So it's a treat to revisit "The Sixth Sense," which is about mothers and sons, and about an actual marriage.

"The Sixth Sense” centers on Toni Collette, whose kid seems to have gone mute, or semi-mute. Collette knows something is wrong, but the kid won't spill the beans. (Once, when the kid drew the nightmares in his head, his teacher yelled at him. So the kid has learned to draw smiling suns and rainbows.)

The kid really doesn't want his mother to see how profoundly alone he has become, so he pays the local bully to *seem* friendly on the walk to school. Off the Philadelphia streets, in a classroom, the bully can resume bullying. But it's those crucial "public" minutes that need to seem G-rated (because moms can peer out of windows).

The mother/son story has a parallel: Like Haley Joel Osment, Olivia Williams is *also* lying to the most important person she sees on a daily basis. Williams is frustrated that her husband spends so much time on work, and she has launched herself on an affair (at least an emotional affair). She can't "own up," or not yet, so the tension just grows and grows.

People focus on the final act of "The Sixth Sense," because the twist is so dazzling, and so successful. But I think no one would care about "seeing dead people," if the screenwriter hadn't taken time to build thorny, complex characters. Amazingly, "The Sixth Sense" is the one and only moment in history when Toni Collette has scored an Oscar nomination. (How can this be?) Famously, Osment landed a nomination, as well--and in one of the toughest years in movie history (the year of "Election," "Ripley," "The Insider," "Being John Malkovich, "Magnolia," and the list goes on). Roger Ebert made a smart point: "Bruce Willis often finds himself in fantasies, perhaps because he is so down-to-earth. He never seems ridiculous, because he does not over-reach....And not every adult actor can play heavy scenes with a kid, without seeming to condescend. Willis can. These scenes give the movie its weight."

I agree. This is a terrific Bruce Willis movie. I'm happy to have revisited the script, and the stars, over this past weekend.
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