The Others
Dir Alejandro Amenábar
2001 PG 13
The Others is a psychological
chiller set in a foreboding old mansion. It
is solely occupied (or IS it?) by a mother (Nicole
Kidman) and her two young children (fear not,
the kids are not cutesy brats.) But the mother
is in mourning, for her beloved husband has
been long missing in action in W.W.II. (
The
Others is set not long after the end of
that war). To make matters worse, her children
are photo-allergic and must be shielded from
daylight (this isn't a vampire movie), which
is convenient for scary scenes because they
are confined to gloomy, oil lamp-lit rooms,
rooms that are spectacularly creepy. Contrived?
Of course. A great plot device? Indeedydoody.
The mother is a eccentric and refuses the luxuries
of electricity, noise or even music, for noise
and music give her migraines. Hence the house
is VERY quiet. And this quietude, like the darkness,
is very unsettling. She teaches her kids to
be "good" Christians, and, in a tense
scene, she tells them to close their eyes and
imagine Hell, to imagine pain that
never
stops. Then she tells them that they will end
up in Hell if they tell lies. (
The Others,
with this marvelous early scene, illustrates
the frankly abusive, mind-screwing tortures
that religious parents inflict upon their kids.)
The mother is surprised to be visited by three
out-of-work servants, and she employs them because
her original servants all mysteriously left.
We are hardly surprised because the mother is
more highly strung than the Goddess of PMT.
The new servants are simple folk: a nanny (Fionnula
Flanagan), a mute kitchen maid (Elaine Cassidy)
and a gardener (Erik Sykes) - are a welcome
presence, being kindly, humble and homely folk.
But, naturally, events take a turn for the worse.
The kids see terrifying presences, and the movie
becomes genuinely scary. The tension becomes
truly amazing because the mother refuses to
accept the awful things her kids are telling
her, even though they are obviously petrified.
The Others contains scare scenes
that made me jump out of my chair, I can tell
you. The movie is PG13? It will give adults
nightmares! And
The Others earned
its frights well, for it sensibly kept the lazy
indulgence of false scares to a minimum. I ABHOR
false scares in movies with a passion. They
are cliché now.
The direction in
The Others was extraordinarily
good, Kidman's uptight performance was electric.
Everyone was perfectly cast and perfect in their
acting, not least the kids. The kids came over
as genuine, not the usual despicable aliens
of the ghastly Spielberg-Disney-Hollywood-kidsy
variety. They were scared but in an understated
way, accepting of their lot. The older sibling
was cruel to the younger, everything was spot
on. The kids, who could have so easily have
ruined
The Others, enhanced it.
The Others has visuals that are
splendidly atmospheric and claustrophobic The
score cranked up the brooding menace wonderfully
and during dialogue free scenes the absence
of music was as important as the presence of
it. Kidman's character saying that music gave
her migraines could be made into a useful metaphor
for movie score writers.
I was captivated by this artful, dramatic killer
of a movie and went away feeling high. Kidman
has been in my two favourite movies of the year
(2001) so far,
Moulin
Rouge and, of course,
The Others.
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spoilers corner
Spoilers!!!!
Warning: this box contains a movie post-mortem analysis that freely gives away important plot twists and details. If you have not yet seen this movie and intend seeing it, avoid this spoilers box until afterwards. Bookmark the page, see the movie, see if you agree with my review then write an arsy comment saying I am talking total b*ll*cks :-)
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Permit me to repeat, please do not read
the red writing in this box if you intend
to see this movie...
I noticed a subtle clue. The mother made
love with her husband and, despite his
stubble being enough to skin a whale,
she was left with a perfect complexion.
No red marks. Someone's either a ghost
or English :)
As for the twists in this tale, I sussed
out that the trio of servants were ghosts
early on, especially when the Nanny said
that they were forced to leave the house
due to tuberculosis causing a mass evacuation.
But I now realise that we were kind of
supposed to foresee this twist,
as I did. I complacently relaxed, thinking
I'd sussed it all out - and was blown
away by the resolution. I thought I wouldn't
fall for such a thing again after Sixth
Sense, and I'm sure many won't fall
for it. But I did. And I'm all the gladder
for it. The epiphany during the climactic
Ouija board scene was a rush I'll never
forget. Wonderful!
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There are no more spoilers below this
point, except maybe in any user talkback
comments.
End of spoilers corner
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None. Another good movie in 2001! Yay!
Spoilers Warning!
Please do not read - or even look at the headings
of - the talkbacks below unless you have already
seen the film. They give away plot twists.
Add your comment to this page
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| From: |
Billy D | Subject: | 2002-05-20 22:10:16 |
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| From: |
nono | Subject: | 2002-06-10 13:42:03 |
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| From: |
mikey | Subject: | 2002-06-21 01:13:00 |
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| From: |
RODAINA | Subject: | 2002-07-31 04:17:17 |
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| From: |
Marcy | Subject: | 2002-08-06 00:24:36 |
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| From: |
Per Magne | Subject: | 2002-11-16 08:23:12 |
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| From: |
Brian | Subject: | 2002-12-20 20:56:16 |
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| From: |
Brian | Subject: | 2002-12-20 21:03:50 |
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| From: |
Elizabethian | Subject: | 2002-12-23 22:35:25 |
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| From: |
lillian r | Subject: | 2002-12-28 17:55:01 |
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| From: |
Jay | Subject: | 2003-03-01 18:43:27 |
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| From: |
Carla | Subject: | 2003-05-31 06:15:18 |
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michelle | Subject: | 2003-06-14 15:23:12 |
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| From: |
Ron | Subject: | 2003-08-14 14:30:52 |
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sam | Subject: | 2004-06-10 03:01:13 |
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| From: |
sam | Subject: | 2004-06-10 03:09:50 |
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The Others | Subject: | 2004-06-15 06:04:37 |
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| From: |
Mike | Subject: | 2004-06-21 04:34:14 |
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| From: |
Allyson | Subject: | 2004-06-22 00:05:49 |
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| From: |
andibandit | Subject: | 2004-12-10 22:15:11 |
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| From: |
lick | Subject: | 2005-03-17 12:25:35 |
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halit | Subject: | 2005-09-05 14:42:53 |
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adrien | Subject: | 2005-10-17 03:37:28 |
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Vi | Subject: | 2005-11-02 01:50:05 |
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| From: |
nidhi | Subject: | 2006-01-18 11:29:55 |
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| From: |
mike | Subject: | 2007-01-01 03:55:03 |
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help: how to add your comment Page hits: 13766
More spoilers below
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On the talkback comments
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Major
Spoilers!!!!!!!!!
To Billy D, nono and Brian, I
suspect the husband *must* have been dead,
because in the notorious twist at the
end of the movie we learn that Kidman
and the kids were ghosts from many decades
ago haunting a house in the present day.
Like his family, hubbie was still young-looking
too, so he was a spook. Plus, living people
"the Others" did not seem to
directly see the ghosts and vice versa.
To lillian
Nice point, I too don't remember the movie
explaining how the servants knew they
were dead, where as Kidman was not so
self-aware. Maybe the servants had more
time to figure it out; perhaps they discovered
their lovely snapshot in "the book
of the dead" and put two and two
together; or the violent nature of Kidman's
death threw her into a state of denial.
The people gathered around the table were
"The Others": the flesh-and-blood
occupants of the house and the psychic
old hag conducting a seance to contact
the ghosts that were haunting them, as
touched on by Marcy.
End of Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the talkbacks so far
- Jim
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End of Spoilers
