The Others
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar.
Starring Nicole Kidman.
In an isolated and bare country house in the Channel Islands Grace (Kidman) lives, waiting and hoping for her soldier husband to return from the War. Her two children are photo-intolerant and she obsessively follows certain rituals to protect them: all windows must be curtained and all interior doors shut and locked. Her servants left the previous week suddenly and without explanation but replacements appear as if by magic: a nanny, Mrs Mills, a gardener, Mr Tuttle, and a maid, Lydia. And then, slowly, the fun begins.
This is a supernatural thriller, no gore but otherwise very much in keeping with The Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes, The Gift etc. It says something about the genre that, while the tension-building and shock-delivery techniques are very familiar, it still succeeds in generating a sense of eeriness, unworldliness and escalating desperation. Though the incidental music’s a bit intrusive and the ending’s overplayed, this is compensated for by a number of nice touches and excellent performances. The stand-out actor is Alakina Mann as Grace’s daughter Anne. The scenes between her and her young brother are particularly well done. Fionnula Flanagan is good as Mrs Mills (her weathered features have previously been seen as Jackie’s wife in Waking Ned Devine). Kidman is not one of the world’s greats but does well here, effectively combining obsessive protectiveness with desperation and a refusal to admit that things are not as they seem. The Others is nothing new but is worth watching if you like a good, creepy ghost story.
Guy
