As I cant spare the time I'd like, I'm taking an extended leave of absence from CIAO. Hope to return...
As I cant spare the time I'd like, I'm taking an extended leave of absence from CIAO. Hope to return some day. All the best.
Member since:26.09.2000
Reviews:49
Members who trust:33
In a large country house on Jersey in the Channel Islands, just after WWII, Grace (Nicole Kidman), a very highly strung and nervous woman is finding life even more stressful than usual.
As if she hasn’t got enough to contend with, what with her husband being missing in action presumed dead and her two kids Anne and Nicholas suffering from a rare photo-sensitive condition which, if they were exposed to anything more than the light of an oil-lamp, would kill them, on top of this, the servants have upped sticks and left their service without so much as a by your leave.
She is therefore grateful when 3 new servants turn up to this house of locked doors and semi-permanent twilight, to at least fill some of the domestic positions.
However it’s not long before her nerves are nipping her again as strange things begin to happen in the house. A child’s crying can be heard. Doors which should be locked are found opened. Footsteps can be heard coming from upstairs altho theres no-one up there, the piano can be heard but the room should be empty and most spookiest of all, Anne insists that
she can see and talk to “the others” living in the house, especially a young boy called Victor.
Meanwhile the servants maintain a strange knowing calm about them, especially the housekeeper, Mrs Mills…
This is very much an old-fashioned, almost Victorian, ghost story, much in the tradition of the stories of M R James.
It doesn’t attempt to scare you with gross-out effects or CGI monsters, it uses the much more subtle method of slowly creating an unsettling atmosphere from which a sense of unease grows.
And for the first half or so of the movie it works wonderfully. I did find myself getting more and more spooked to the point that despite the fact they were much anticipated and fairly ham-fisted, the couple of shocks that were delivered had me jumping out my skin and scattering popcorn over the three rows in front of me.
However the heavy investment in building up this early atmosphere is complete lost, as the movie, for my money, completely fails to maintain this tension and over the middle section it goes completely off the boil by introducing another element into the plot, which added nothing to the story.
For here on, I found myself getting increasingly bored, I believe I may even have dozed off for a minute, this first time I’ve ever fallen asleep at the cinema.
By the time the movie had gotten around to winding up the conclusion, I do not think I could have cared less and as the conclusion began I found myself becoming more and more incredulous to the point that I almost laughed out loud. The conclusion proper was so clumsily done that although I could tell the intention was to make go me go wow!, I just found myself thinking that I was glad it was over.
Matters weren’t helped by the performance of Nicole Kidman. Or was it the character that she played? As I said Grace was a very highly-strung, slightly neurotic person, who became increasingly shrill and unsympathetic as the movie progressed to the point that I found her very irritating that I couldn’t really give a damn about. Not a great characteristic for the heroine to have.
The stand out performance for me was by Alakina Mann as the daughter Anne. She has to carry a lot of the earlier parts of the movie as most of the strange occurrences happen around her. Alakina was able to hint a certain degree of ambiguity and darkness that was required to create the uneasy atmosphere.
Overall, despite a few enjoyable elements, especially the jump-out-of-your-skin frights, altho mostly of the “boo” variety got me every time, the movie was a major disappointment and a bit of a bore to boot.
What is interesting tho, as I said the movie stars Nicole Kidman, who at the time was married to Tom Cruise, who is the executive producer, the movie is written/directed by Alejandro Amenabar, who back in 1997 wrote and directed a movie called “Abre los ojos”, which has just been remade by Cameron Crowe as “Vanilla Sky” which stars Tom Cruise who whilst filming began an affair with his co-star Penelope Cruz, which lead to his divorce from Nicole Kidman. It’s a small pool that the Hollywood sharks conduct their cannibalistic feeding frenzy in.
Film has a “12” certificate, I guess because of the more frightening elements as certainly there is nothing in the way of language, sex or violence.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: K.C. Bascombe - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jesse James, Rachel Skarsten, Charles Powell, Linda Purl, Kevin Zegars
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
I guess the Hollywood trivia at the end of this review sounds more interesting than this lacklustre film! x
nightchild 02.11.2001 11:46
great title :)
I really fancied watching this film, its apity you found it a little on the boring side, i think i will wait for it tocome outn on video
Dawn:)
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![The Others (2 Disc Collectors Edition) [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78530551.jpg "The Others (2 Disc Collectors Edition) [DVD] [2001]")
Oct 26th, 2001
(Oct 27th, 2001)
very helpful by (100%):
