1999 / TV
SF elements
ghosts
Review
Dr Malcolm Crowe [Bruce Willis],
![[Cole and Crowe]](cole2.jpg "[Cole and Crowe]")
a
child psychologist who badly failed one of his previous patients,
feels he can make up for that mistake by helping Cole Sear [Haley Joel
Osment], a young boy who is similarly disturbed. Crowe thinks his
troubles may be due to his parents' divorce, or to being bullied at
school, or even that his mother may be abusing him. But as the story
slowly unfolds, we learn that his problem is that he sees dead people,
"all the time".
![[Cole Sear]](cole.jpg "[Cole Sear]")
This is very slow and measured, but utterly marvellous chilling ghost story told, on the whole, without blood and gore or violent effects. Osment gives a stunningly brilliant performance as the tortured and bewildered youngster struggling to cope with horrific visions, slowly coming to trust and confide in his doctor, who even more slowly comes to believe him. There is a wonderfully clever twist ending (which I never saw coming, even though I knew there was a twist) -- but even without that, the whole story is excellent.
Rating: 2
[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]