DCTommy

This thriller is very Hitchcockian - the comparisons are too numerous to mention, from the bird noises to the ankle camera shots (Kidman even looks like Hitchcock's favorite actress, Grace Kelly from certain angles!). But The Others would have been a mediocre Hitchcock, and is above average modern American flick. A lot here is taken from the Sixth Sense school, but not done as well. Surprisingly, it's the story that's a bit weak and predictable here, bogging down excellent cinematography, directing, acting, etc. The mechanics are wonderful. Way too many scenes of Kidman in a gloomy hallway with an oil lamp... Enough already. There are no secondary plots here of any interest - the main one may be enough to carry the movie, but not make it great. As for the amazing surprise / plot twist at end --- I honestly had it pegged in the first 1/2 hour, and I normally am pretty darn dumb when it comes to "figuring out" surprise endings.... Maybe I was lucky on this one, or maybe there was just so much dead time during the film that I had the chance to think about it too much...

Sometimes plot does matter. This is a case in point - two dazzling stars on screen with nothing to work with. Grant is in fine form, Bergman a bit over-the-hill but obviously still competent. The love story is weak - both stars seem to be held back - chomping at the bit to take the film to the next level, but really have nothing but boring, staged stares, terrible scene locations, and an amusing line every 30 minutes to work with. It's still better than the average flick of the era because of the stars, but you could watch this one while flipping through a magazine, glancing up every 5 minutes, and you wouldn't be disadvantaged.

I agree with the viewer above who was disppointed in the ending. The acting overall was fine, but the plot was too disjointed and nonsensical in parts. My feeling is that the plot shifted whenever necessary to get the film to the next scene - dragging along the viewer whether it's a logical shift or not. For instance, at the beginning of the movie (not ruining anything for viewers!) Joseph Cotton approaches a doctor and asks about performing an autopsy - which would have ended the movie then and there. But no, the doctor says that he doesn't want to get involved, and the idea of an autopsy simply ends on that note. Cotten basically says, "Well OK" and the movie moves on to the next scene. At least the screenwriters could have come up with SOME other excuse to prevent an autopsy from occurring.... Anyway, there are irksome things like that throughout, but if you can ignore them, you can enjoy. As for the ending, it's a bit dull and nonsensical, again, and ends too abruptly.