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    		•

    FILMS

    The Others (2001)
  • Starring Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Christopher Eccleston, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy

  • Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar


    • Kerri and I were getting ready to leave Hawaii when we saw this film. We'd been honeymooning on Maui for seven days and at the end of our trip found ourselves in traveling purgatory—our hotel stay had finished and our plane wouldn't depart for another six or seven hours. We had gone to a Hawaiian vineyard that morning and try as we might, we just couldn't kill anymore time by walking around shopping malls—especially since we couldn't buy anything! (Our bags were already packed full.)

    The two of us wandered up to the box office to see what was playing. Considering that the previous few months had been taken up by wedding plans, we were both a little out of the cinema loop. We chose to watch The Others because a) it had Nicole Kidman in it, and she's cool and b) it was going to start in 20 minutes.

    Aside from that, neither of us knew anything about this movie other than it fell into the "thriller" category. (I think it said as much on the poster, most likely an inane comment by a newspaper-employed "professional" reviewer—pardon the bitterness, but I'm absolutely convinced that movie reviewers at The Washington Post don't actually like movies. They hate everything! Granted, much of what comes out is garbage...but, nevermind. Don't get me started.)

    If you don't know what this movie is about, please stop reading now. You'll be doing yourself a huge favor. Go into it completely blind. Hell, even if you know everything about this movie go see it. It's incredibly good.

    I don't consider myself jumpy in movies (though some may argue the point), but jeez—I almost crapped myself watching this movie. Not a good thing to do while on a honeymoon; but hell, if the film warrants a good crapping, then do what you gotta do!

    Let's see if I can give a brief plot synopsis without giving too much away.

    Nicole Kidman plays a strict, Christian, English woman. She's a mother of two children who are photo-sensitive, e.g., they're allergic to sunlight. Any amount of prolonged contact with it and they'll suffocate. Her husband went off to war and she hasn't heard from him in a while. Her house is huge. Gigantic. With many, many doors. The movie opens with some new servants arriving to help out with the housework. Things get scary from here. Prepare to hold on to a friend or you better have the crap-paper handy.

    There! I think I did it. If you're not interested by the above paragraph then perhaps this will entice you: Somehow they managed to make Nicole Kidman look hot even in those tight, formal, stuffy dresses. Zowee!

    If you've read any of my other reviews, you might've picked up that I don't like kids in movies. That's a rule. However, like every rule, there are exception to this. Until I saw The Others, Haley Joel Osment was the only exception. I think I've realized that it's not really kids that I don't like in films, it's the performance the director makes the children give. Some directors have no idea how kids behave and, therefore, can't direct them. (See The Phantom Menace for a good example of Bad Child Acting.)

    Having said that, I thought the kids in this film were phenomenal. A-pluses and kudos go out to Alakina Mann and James Bentley. I'd have to say that they upstaged everyone else in the film—and not because they were being "cute" kids, but rather because they were being real.

    I've seen this film four or five times now. I know where the scary parts are, and yet I still find myself afraid for the people in the house. Who knows, maybe I do get spooked easily.