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| The Others (2001) 104 min |
| aka Los Otros Les Autres The Darkness (US working title) |
| Alejandro Amenabar's The Others is one of the strongest genre efforts in a long time. Amenabar had already proved himself to be quite a visionary with two previous Spanish efforts, Thesis and Open Your Eyes (the later of which was recently remade as Vanilla Sky). With each picture he proves himself to be more of an artist with diverse skills and a unique vision. With The Others, he unleashes one of the strongest ghost stories the screen has ever seen. Closest in tone to Robert Wise's fantastic The Haunting, The Others does everything right while playing with audience expectations as to what is actually seen and what is perceived. Amenabar has mastered showing the perfect amount to get maximum effectiveness (a trait he also brilliantly displayed throughout Thesis. |
| The story concerns a mother (Nicole Kidman in an outstanding performance) living on a large estate with two photosensitive children. We pick up the story shortly after the servants for the house have vanished without a trace. We learn that her husband has gone to war and not returned (though the war has been over for months). Three new servants arrive on her doorstep one day, not without their own peculiarities. One of the servants is a mute and they all claim to have worked in the house under previous owners. The mother is strictly teaching her children bible studies while trying to deal with the stress of her missing husband (she has had no confirmation of his death). Things really start to heat up when her young daughter keeps claiming to have seen a group of visitors in the house, most notably a young boy named Victor. Taking her mother's lessons regarding the importance of convictions to faith, the young girl refuses to concede that she has not seen such things. The mystery unfolds to one of the more satisfying conclusions I've seen in some time. Amenabar ends by spelling out the main body of the story but manages to avoid the pitfalls of spoonfeeding an audience (see also, Open Your Eyes). |
| Even though he goes to lengths to clearly explain the story at the conclusion, the movie is never simply that cut and dry. The characters are so wonderfully acted and developed one can't help but take on their perspective regarding the events. This gives the story multiple layers that give the final film great replay value. The film is strong all the way through, not relying on a few clever scenes and a twist ending in place of a truly interesting work (like M. Night Shyamalan's vastly overrated The Sixth Sense). Yes, there is a twist at the end, but unlike Shyamalan's film there are multiple layers and complexities adding to its value was a film. The discussions on faith and superstition are interesting and parallel the events in the story. The main theme of the movie is repeated several times (don't open a door until the previous one is closed) but still manages to have strong subtleties that merit further discussion. To go into any further detail here would possibly spoil the ending. I would just like to further emphasize that this film has so much more going for it than just a strong ending. |
| There are so many reasons for the film having as much power as it does that it makes it difficult for me to figure out where to begin. The superbly written screenplay (by Amenabar) is obviously a major reason for the film's artistic success, but this is a production where every single aspect came together in perfect harmony. A huge amount of credit should be given to the actors, every single one of which turned in a fantastic performance. Leading the way is the Autralian beauty Nicole Kidman. She had, just a few years earlier, put in a top notch performance in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. I would go as far as to say that she even outdid that one here. I couldn't imagine the role being portrayed better. Kidman handles such a multi layered character with an amazing amount of grace (no pun intended) and brings out all the intimidating, nurturing, frusterated, and sympathetic aspects of the character flawlessly. As much as her performance blew me away, I should be carefull not to spend too much time there, as the rest of the cast was equally as flawless. I've seen some great child actors in various films, but I have to say that the two here (Alakina Mann and James Bently) rank among the best I've ever seen. Bently garners great sympathy as the younger sibling, and is entirely believable throughout. It is really rare to find child actors of his caliber that completely make you forget that you're watching an actor and get lost completely in the character. Mann had even bigger shoes to fill as her role required her to stand up defiantly to such an established actor such as Kidman. To see someone of that age hold her own next to someone such as Kidman is truly something special. While the cast is relatively small, it is still dificult to praise a cast as great as this as much as is deserved. Unfortunately that results in the three supporting players getting shortchanged slightly in this review. Fionnula Flanagan, Eric Sykes, and Elaine Cassidy all make the most out of there screen time as the mysterious new house servants. I don't want to put one above the others since they all brought so much to the film, but I feel that I should make special mention of Cassidy for bringing so much life to a character without a word of dialogue. |
| The film has so much more going for it aside from a strong cast too. Technically the film is pefect, creating an atmosphere of tension that is near unbearable at times. The photography is stunning, this film is so nicely shot that it would have made a terrifying silent film! The blacks are deep and rich and bring every shadow and dark corner to life Likewise, the contrast of the light pouring in through any open window really makes the light seem as cunning and devilish as Kidman describes. The foggy setting around the estate (set on Jersey Island at the end of WWII) is rich and claustrophobic. Speaking so highly of the wonderful visuals is in no way meant to down play the importance of the sound. The effects are used just as masterfully as the were in the original Haunting. The subtleties of the soundtrack allowed my mind to run away with me exploring possibilites throughout the film, which again are left open to interpritation after all is said and done. Amenabar also scores the film effectively. The music is intense but never intruding. It's the kind of score that you might not notice while watching but effectively sets the mood. |
| As far as releasing goes, the film hit theaters in late summer 2001 and did quite well at the box office. Never making a huge splash, The Others was a steady sleeper hit remaining at number 4 on the charts for several weeks on end. It ended up stopping just shy $100 million in the US by November. This is quite impressive considering its understated style limited promotion. It took forever, but Miramax finally released it on DVD through its Dimension arm in May of 2002 (close to a year later). The presentation of the feature is worth the price alone, but the packaging is suspect. It's released as a 2 disc set, but doesn't really have enough features to warrant this. The short featurettes on the disc don't total more than an hour. While they are quite interesting at some points (particularly interviews with Amenabar) it just doesn't go far enough. The short peice on xeroderma pigmentosum is definitely interesting, but the short documentary doesn't go into it in enough detail for it to be treated as anything other than a novelty here. But, atleast the movie looks excellent and sounds great. When a movie stands alone as such a great achievment then I guess that has to be enough. |
| I give this one a full 5 mute houskeepers out of 5! |
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| reviewed by Joe Canistro 05/05/2002 |