Year Released: 1999
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette
(PG-13, 107 min.)
Genre: Mystery and Thriller

“I see dead people… They don’t know they’re dead.” –Cole Sear

Probably the only movie that is as good or better the second time around. The first time is creepy and surreal. The second time an intellectual exercise as well as a lesson in humility.

Part of the excellence comes from the superbly crafted script by then 29-year-old M. Night Shyamalan, who also directed the film. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a closet Agatha Christie fan. She seems too prim and traditional at first glance, but she understood that a good mystery is a like the boldest and bravest of bullfighters, who risk death by holding their red capes as close as possible to their bodies.

So with the clues in a mystery. They must be there all along, the truth as close to the textual body as the cape to a toreador. Too many series now popular, such as Midsomer Murders (English Trifle with Fresh Raspberries) , Death in Paradise (English Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding) and even The Brokenwood Mysteries (Mrs. Marlowe’s Secret Cheese Roll Recipe) pull their rabbits out of a hat in finales that seems rushed. They use magic tricks not real magic.

But real magic is what M. Night Shyamalan gives us in spades in The Sixth Sense. And much of that is also due to the excellent cast. Toni Collette as Coles’ loving and supportive mother anchors the film as a sole reminder of normalcy. She worries about her seriously introverted and asocial son, but “she never looks at me like I’m a freak,” as Cole says. That is why he will never tell her his secret.

Bruce Willis – I had forgotten what he looked like with hair – burned into our memory as the bad boy cop in the first trifecta of Die Hard films (1988, 1990, 1995), surprises us with an understated performance, sensitive and reflective, the polar opposite of his up until then screen persona.

Haley Joel Osment plays 9-year-old Cole Sear in a break out performance. He is like fine parchment paper, pure, fragile, and almost translucent, his performance miles away from the famed studio “child actors” who self-consciously danced across our screens with choreographed emotions, all pouts and puffery. Maybe his authenticity is what brings out Willis’s real acting chops.

Another breakout performance comes from Danny Wahlberg, the now semi bad boy cop we invite into our living rooms every Friday night as Danny Reagan of Blue Bloods.

He is unrecognizable as Vincent Gray, “the disturbed former mental patient who propels The Sixth Sense into darkness in the opening of the film.”

The 28-year-old Wahlberg, who jumped to fame as a founding member of New Kids On the Block, had to fight to convince writer/director M. Night Shyamalan that he could take on the pivotal part – Gray serves as the tragic predecessor to Cole Sear (11-year-old Haley Joel Osment), who sees "dead people."

Shyamalan's leap-of-faith casting compelled Wahlberg to take an all-consuming journey, losing 43 pounds, to enter Gray's disturbed mindset.

The three-minute Gray scene remains utterly unforgettable, more so in light of how perfecting it haunted Wahlberg, who said he had to go to a “really dark place” to prepare for the role. –Bryan Alexander

Ultimately they rejected Wahlberg’s idea to play the part completely naked – the film was set up to be it to be PG-13, – so he settled on a pair of “tidi whities” that looked like he hadn’t changed them in 2 years.

•••

The link between Donny’s Wahlberg’s Vincent Gray and Cole passes so quickly we might miss it on a first viewing. As Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Willis) waits to meet his new client, Cole, we see in his notes that Cole’s parents, like Vincent Gray’s, have recently divorced. And that Cole also suffers from fear and anxiety, just as Vincent Gray did. Maybe this time the psychiatrist can get it right. A whiff of redemption is in the air.

In this early meeting we see a little bit of Sherlock Holmes in our child psychiatrist. He notes that the large glasses that give Cole his owlish appearance have no lenses. And that the watch he wears on his thin wrist is oversized. Was that a parting gift from his father, he speculates. Well, our Dr. Crowe is not quite our 221B Baker Street boy. Cole’s dad has merely left the watch and his glasses behind in his hasty departure from the family.

Also intriguing is Dr. Crowe’s way of coaxing Coles out of his shell. He makes a series of statements about Cole. If he is right, Cole will take a step toward him. If wrong, Cole will walk back toward his door. A good way to talk to someone who prefers not to. Thus it turns out that while Cole’s mom is out of the room, the only one talking, for the most part, is Dr. Crowe. Certainly an aspect of significance, we later realize.

Of course, the pivotal scene for Different Drummer is the anniversary dinner that evening. Willis’s Crowe arrives very late, mumbling something about losing track of time recently. His wife completely ignores him, takes the check, and leaves abruptly, angry at his late arrival, we assume.

These are just a few instances of Shyamalan’s brilliance – the purposeful double interpretations of almost every scene. He is not just the writer and the director, but a double agent of sorts, employing as an asset “an unreliable narrator who doesn’t even know he is unreliable.”

***

This fine film is almost perfect. Flawlessly crafted, with intellectual underpinnings that keep the bizarre twists from careening out of control. Those of us who do not anticipate the final twist will certainly forgive M. Night Shyamalan for his hidden-in-plain-sight guile. We humbly nod to him, like a fencer who has been bested by a master.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Some of the food in the classic mystery/thriller is poisoned, and some regurgitated, so let’s forget a recipe this time and go for a cocktail.

You will probably need it to settle your nerves after watching this creepy classic, anyway. Yes, you would have to have lived the past 20 some years in a permanent lockdown to be unaware of the shock ending, but it’s almost as much fun watching The Sixth Sense a second time to see how the truth is hidden in plain sight. And you might take the advice of our recipe creator Shanna and use some dry ice. But instead of in the cocktail itself, as she suggests, how about just letting it fog up the room like your breath as a ghost comes by to say hello?

I See Dead People Cocktail

Ingredients

· 4 ounces coconut rum (or vodka - I prefer Koloa coconut or Ciroc Coconut Vodka)

· 3 ounces white Creme de Cacao

· 2 tsp vanilla simple syrup (see notes)

· 3 ounces heavy cream (or half and half) ( You could also do coconut milk for a non-dairy version)

Instructions

· Add everything with ice into a cocktail shaker. Shake well until chilled. Pour into two cocktail glasses and serve immediately. You can serve this over ice if you would like.

Notes

· For the vanilla simple syrup:

· Combine 1 cup water with 1 cups sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 min. Let cool in pan. Add in 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and then transfer to a resealable glass jar. Chill completely until ready to use. Make this ahead of time so it is ready to go for the cocktails.

· This recipe can easily be made into a large batch for a party. Keep it chilled until ready to serve.

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