Rating: 
Summary: The Wakening of Suspense
Review: The movie, The Others, is a well-made picture. The movie does not focus on special effects but rather the atmosphere and sounds of the specific setting. The film is very close to the style of The Sixth Sense, ending with a questionable but surprising finish. Parents must be warned because this movie may give a few frights to your kids. Nicole Kidman does a teriffic job of making the feeling and emotion come to life. I must say that this movie will not disappoint you.
Rating:
Summary: Ceaselessly Creepy
Review: What an amazing actress Nicole Kidman is. I was a skeptic at first, thinking her celebrity was undeserved and only borrowed from her husband's name, but wow, film after film she has proved not only a marvelous actress but to be about as good a judge of projects worth being involved with as Mr. Cruise is, which, to me, is saying quite a bit. This film is no exception, her performance is riveting and propels the film the entire way. Her face alone is captivatingly expressive, emotional and intense. She is not alone either, the children and the servants are also played to perfection. They all contribute to the amazingly creepy atmosphere that Amenabar creates with his visuals and even with his self-written score. This film is about atmosphere and it is criticized for having little more. It is also about what is revealed in the end and for that being too little too late. To these protestations I want to respond. I must admit that I did feel a bit of a letdown in the end myself and despite a series of perfectly scary sequences leading up to it, the end makes the film feel on one level like scary build ups for the sake of scary build ups. The end can be (and has been) accused of being a twist for the sake of a twist or merely an exercise in unfairly withholding information from the audience. The movie can also be accused of being all atmosphere but with no substance. I disagree with all these charges but not because I don't see where they come from. This movie rests on its twist because unlike the Sixth Sense this movie makes you wait for the twist to feel like you know anything about what is going on. In the Sixth Sense you think you've understood the movie alright and that you've had plot development and resolution and that the sense of oddity to the whole thing can be chalked up just to tone of direction when suddenly you are shocked with a revelation into the real source of the strange mood and the true insight into what all of what you have seen and thought you understood was. This film does not temporarily appease you and so it leaves you dying to finally get the key to the film. With that level of anticipation the movie has trouble living up to the Sixth Sense's ambush surprise satisfaction rate. What is even worse for The Others is that it comes after The Sixth Sense and Fight Club and What Lies Beneath, and The Usual Suspects have prepared us for the mislead-the-audience brand of thriller that is not a mystery but a rather an audience participation demonstration in the relativities of perception. Since we've seen such a thing before, this film shocks us less and gives little meantime satisfaction so all we can concentrate on is the big shock coming. With those expectations, even if it is still surprising, it is in a way too predictable. So, I get the critique and think I see why it comes into play. I stand by the movie though because I think that this film is actually in the end, sharper than the Sixth Sense for its way of sticking to a very classic haunted house premise and working so successfully to put a new spin on such an old genre, its ability to stay extremely spooky in such a well known context, to invert our expectations right where we have the most expectations rather than creating a new realm of circumstances for the characters so that the audience is scared just from the confusion of trying to acclamate to its new world (as was the case in the Sixth Sense.) This movie puts us in a very predictable setting and yet scares us. I think that the film is really about watching it the second time. The Sixth Sense was disappointing the second time, once the joke was gotten going through the motions of watching it was unnecessary. The film was not ABOUT what it is like to live in a certain perception, primarily. Whereas I think this film is really about what it is like to be in that haunted house from the perspective of Kidman and her children and experiencing it knowing what they are really going through seems to me to be a fascinating twist worth watching reenacted repeatedly. It is like a visual work of art that way more than it is a narrative. The Sixth Sense was about the art of narrative more. This is about the portrait, the art of getting there, the every moment more than the grand finale. The better films sometimes are like that, they are not about big payoffs, and this film despite the obvious importance of the ending twists is not really one long set up to a twist. The twist is an element, a section of a larger work of beauty. It is rewatchable just for the visual picture of a way of being. Truman Show is much the same way, yet even better, for the care and beauty that goes into every moment, in which the end is only a glorious part of something sublime throughout. This is no Truman Show, some of the film does drag, and there are a handful of nice set ups that get wasted and a little bit of being creepy just for the sake of being creepy, but overall this is a movie that works even though it fails to be as climactic as a film usually needs to be. Occasionally at least, a film can be judged by criteria more similar to applied to static visual art and I think this one fairs proudly by such a standard.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW!
Review: Okay, I admit that I do not go to see a lot of movies in a given year, but this movie is easily the best one I have seen this year. The way I decide how good a movie is, is by how much I keep talking about it with my wife and by how much I keep thinking about it and realizing more about the movie. This was an excellent movie that kept my mind going for a while, even my dreams later that night. This is a slow moving, that builds up to a surprise ending and it deals with the super-natural, so comparisons to 'The Sixth Sense' are valid. 'The Others' is a wonderful, clean movie. Get out of the heat and go to your nearest theater and see this movie. Hopefully this new director (new to us in the U.S.) Will make many more movies.
Rating:
Summary: The effective creepy summer sleeper!
Review: Every summer I have serious expectations for a great summer sleeper film that no one knows about but ends up being box office success. "The Others," is this summers sleeper! Like "Ghost," "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense," this movie follows in that tradition of bringing to the screen atmosphere and substance rather than hokey special effects and cheap thrills. The thrills in this movie are far from cheap. Each scene in "The Others," builds with a slow gradual pace much like what Kubrick did with "The Shining." Nicole Kidman provides quite possibly the best performance of her career and I would go as far to say loosely "Oscar!" All the characters are truly superb and effective, the story striking and intense and the scenery is ultimately dark and creepy, especially the scene where Nicole Kidman gets lost in "the fog." If you want a true spooky ghost story, this is the one to see, along with the forthcoming "Jeepers Creepers," which opens in theatres August 31st. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: Chilling throwback to Hitchcock
Review: For those whose taste in thrillers is based on the idea that what happens in the mind is much scarier than anything that happens on screen, this film is for you.With no blood or gore, the scares of "The Others" occur totally in the mind, a figment of the imagination, atmospheric music (by director Alejandro Amenabar), and one very creepy setting. The film takes place on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands. WWII has ended not long ago, and Grace (Nicole Kidman, in a pitch-perfect performance) and her two children Anne and Nicholas (the child actors are wonderful!) and living in a gigantic mansion that is in a perpetual state of darkness due to the children's unusual skin conditions (light will cause them to break into hives and, eventually, die). Along come three servants, including Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), who tells Grace that she used to work at the mansion. But the fact that all is not right with these servants quickly becomes apparent. To tell too much about this film would be a mistake. The performances are terrific, and while some have called this film slow-moving, my interest was not lost for a second of the 2-hour running time. For fans of Hitchcock, this movie is a relief and a revelation--its old-fashioned storytelling is unlike anything the other horror/thriller films have to offer today. There are several twists, some of which are foreseeable in advance and others of which hit you just as they're being revealed. If you enjoy Hitchcock, this is your movie. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Ghost Story in a Long Time (no spoilers)
Review: I've looked forward to this movie since I heard about it about a year ago and it was worth the wait. It is a dark, engrossing, suspenseful, and kind of unnerving film. If you're looking at reviews you probably already know the plot so I'll skip it. I'll just say that the ending is one of the best twists I've ever seen and makes you look at everything you saw before it differently. The acting in this movie is great, especially the always excellent Nicole Kidman. This is her best thriller since "Dead Calm". The direction is great and very stylistic. This is a great film that you should definately see if you like suspense.
Rating:
Summary: An intense thriller in the female persepective
Review: Hmmm... compared to other movies out this summer, this was the "intelligent" one. It didn't play for sentimentality on WWII, overly romanced, dumb brainy humor, or overly gorey. Occasionally, we enjoy and need those things, but Hollywood sees how successful they are at the box office and tends to saturate the market with the same kind of films. This one is a unique Thriller that is intense and very satisfying to watch. Giving a synopsis of the storyline would be unfair to the film, because it is best to take it in as it happens. I will say this, assuming that no one tells you what happens in the film, you will find yourself thinking about it for hours and even days afterwards, just marveling at the storyline and intriguing twists. In other words, it is not predictable. I studied film, but I needed the help of my friends piecing it all together the next day. I felt really stupid. Yeah, it's an excellent movie. Scary? At parts, more thrilling, and intense, because of the way things creep along. The viewer might think they drag, but understand, it is intricately detailed and everything will be explained to the patiend viewer. It was a rewarding experience in an otherwise dull cliched summer, and Nichole Kidman's performance was OUTSTANDING. I was surprised about lack of commercials for the film, then I saw that Tom Cruise was the producer for the film, and I suspect the divorce meant he was not as interested in the financial outcome of the film, or helping his ex-wife's career (something to think about).
Rating:
Summary: Nicole Kidman Channels the Dead; Grace Kelly Lives (Possible spoilers...)
Review: "The Others" is full to the brim of wondrous and surprising things -- First and foremost, a script that opens like a Venus Flytrap -- exotic, seductive, deadly -- It dares us to look away, tantalizes, takes its time, invites us in, then closes like a vise on a simple, terrifying conceit: Do the dead haunt the living, or do the living haunt the dead? Amenabar's graceful, powerful writing and directing deserve our praise. The cinematography of The Others is breathtaking --every shot seems composed from a nightmare, but one just out of the reach of true memory. Fans of Christopher Eccleston (I am) will be delighted with his astonishing, almost wordless appearance. Fionnula Flanagan (Mrs. Mills), and the two children give performances that can only be described as delicious. NICOLE KIDMAN accomplishes something very rare here. Not only does she serve the story, fitting the character like a glove, she conjures forth the bewitching image of GRACE KELLY in her prime. This coincidence is not lost on Mr. Amenabar, whose camera captures Kidman in that rapturous, Hitchcockian way: swirling down staircases, hovering at waist level, gliding like a predator, circling upward to the precise moment of profile. Indeed, Ms. Kidman's embodiment of the late Grace Kelly is so startling, so uncanny, I was convinced there were two ghost stories unfolding simultaneously: one in a haunted house; the other being a legendary actress reaching across decades to possess the soul of another.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece of the Genre
Review: Earlier this year Nicole Kidman added sparkle to a movie- Moulin Rouge- which revolutionized the musical and added some new life and vigor into a withering standard. Here, she does the same for the horror/suspense movie- pitch-perfect as a starchy but resolute stickler for faith, order, and discipline who is forced to understand the more complex nature of life and death and their unique relationship. If you're going to see garrish ghosts or spells or coffins being raised from the earth, then skip this. But if you're looking for a truly bone-chilling, terrifying, and immensely effective horror movie then The Others may well be your best chance in many years. Amenabar shows a genuine knack for eeriness in this tale, directing a perfectly-paced movie that is short on gadgetry and stock setups and very generous when it comes to suspense and thrills. This movie is as much cerebral as it is visual- alot of the scariest stuff is what happens in your head. By the time you get to the end, you can actually feel Kidman's desperation in trying to protect her children from forces she cannot see and which she does not understand. All the performances are accomplished, but it's Kidman's that is stellar. Some actresses have to flash alot of their flesh to get the audience's attention; a stare, and those icy green eyes, are all Kidman needs. A brilliant performance; a masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a movie worth seeing this summer!
Review: The Others is one of the most brilliantly paced horror films I've ever seen. It has a delightful eerieness the entire way through and the casting is amazing. The character of Bertha really creates fear and distrust in your heart along with Mr. Tuttle and Lydia. The children were magnificently chosen and Nicole Kidman hasn't been this good since Dead Calm, if not better. Turns out she is a very talented actress. The dialogue in this is also cunning and brilliant. One of the most interesting and amusing lines to me was when Kidman is looking through the "dead photos" and says to Ms. Mills..."group portraits?". The ending is so very clever, very eerie and it really does surprise you. Not to mention, all throughout the movie, there are little heart in your throat moments. Everyone keeps comparing it, but this is so much better than Sixth Sense. I think the mood and tone are much more like Village of the Damned with those spooky children. Definitely recommend checking it out for yourself. Don't take the kids.
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