The Others Review by Beth Ann Griese

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Starring	Nicole Kidman, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Fionnula Flanagan
Director	Alejandro Amenábar
Year	2001
The Scoop	A creepy woman must protect her creepy children when their creepy house shows distinct signs of being haunted. Gather 'round the campfire; this is a good old-fashioned ghost story that offers gooseflesh galore.
What it's worth		Full price (See this movie at whatever cost!)

The movie is about a woman named Grace (Kidman), who at the end of World War II is ensconced in her stone mansion in Jersey (that's in the English Channel, not the New Jersey state), still waiting for her husband to return from war. She's alone and caring for her two young children when three servants come to the house to gain employment.

We're introduced to the characters and the house as Grace introduces the servants to them. The key to the house's atmosphere is that it's almost always shrouded in darkness. The two children are fatally sensitive to light; therefore, heavy curtains are almost always drawn, doors are kept shut, and the house lives under a muffled, closed, oppressive atmosphere. And strange things are happening in it. The little girl, Anne (Mann), is the most vocal about the voices and unexplained things that are going on, but everyone becomes more and more affected by it.

I won't tell any more about the story than that, because like any good ghost story, knowing too much about what's happening will ruin the whole effect. And the movie's director knows this well and takes advantage of it. There are times that if the camera would just pan three feet to the right, great mysteries might be solved, but it stubbornly stays put and the audience is still wrapped in doubt. What exactly is going on? Is the house haunted? Is someone up to dastardly deeds? And if so, who?

Excellent acting all around sells the storyline perfectly. Anne is rebellious and angry. The youngest child, Nicholas (Bentley), is scared out of his wits. Mrs. Mills, the housekeeper, is almost too unflappable. And the crown jewel in the cast is Kidman's Grace. One moment her fear draws the audience into nail-biting for her safety, the next she seems like she might be capable of doing God-knows-what in her isolation and paranoia. Everyone keeps the story just a little off-kilter, shakes up any ideas about what's going on, and heaps mystery onto mystery as we wonder who might be in fear for their lives, and if anyone should.

I was completely drawn in by the story and fought the chills for a good while after I left the theater. I wasn't the only one affected in my theater crowd, either: after a particularly good scare that had half of the audience squeaking, I heard a guy behind me muttering "Ow, my hand!" Public service announcement to anyone going to this film with a grabber: remove your rings before the movie starts. I may be saving digits, here.

This is an unadorned, unabashed spook story, and it nails its target. Go see it any time the hairs on the back of your neck need a little exercise.

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