Nicole Kidman, Christopher Eccleston
RT: 1:44:00
This is the first movie review/analysis for my Readings in the Genre (RIG) course. Because of the theme, Hauntings, I thought I knew what I was getting in to.
I was fortunate enough to have never seen this movie before, so watching it for the class was a new experience. I didn't go into it with preconceived notions about what the story is, or what it should be, or how it should end.
*Warning: There will be spoilers ahead.
The Others follows the story of Grace Stewart (Kidman), and her two children, Ann and Nicolas. Grace and her children live in self-imposed exile in Jersey (Old one not New), following WWII. The exile stems from Ann and Nicolas's extreme photosensitivity, resulting in a penchant for heavy curtains. Amazon and Netflix were invented for this family. Grace's husband (Eccleston), went missing during the war, and they live with the hope he will return some day.
The movie begins with the arrival of three applicants for
the recently vacant house staff positions. The elder Bertha Mills, ancient Mr.
Tuttle, and young mute Lydia are immediately hired because they fit the
criteria of showing up.
Upon their arrival, a whole slew of mysterious events begin to take place, leading Grace to believe the house is haunted. Strangely enough, she never stops to think it might be the new staff she hired, despite their own admission that they used to work in the house a long time ago.
Finally, fed up with the hauntings, Grace tries to run into
town to get help, but is met in the woods by her long-missing husband (Eccleston)! He seems
distant, and after a day says it’s time to leave. He was just there to say
goodbye. Was he another ghost? Did he show up just to give his kids false hope
their daddy would still be around? Did he cross the boundaries of death itself
for one last booty call?
Long story short, because I want to get in some analysis
vice plot regurgitation: The Stewarts are recently deceased, following Grace’s
mental breakdown in which she suffocates her two kids and somehow kills herself
with a shotgun that is arguably longer than she is tall. And the ghosts, the
Others? Those would be the new living people who just bought the house. So what
this movie did, in essence, is flip the traditional ghost story and tell it
from the point of view of the ghosts (just not as hilariously as Beetlejuice
did).
This movie, with its decidedly Shyamalanian twist ending,
hit the theaters a month before 9/11, and is one of the first horror movies of
the new millennium. It’s use of atmosphere and its characters to ramp of the
horror was a nice departure from the 90s teen horror movies.
Idealistically, it can be likened to Henry James’s 1898
book, A Turn of the Screw. However,
with the exception of some similarities in characters, and maybe a rough
interpretation by writer/director Alejandro Amenabar of the meaning of the
story, the two have little in common.
There are points in the story that are difficult to
understand why they are there. For instance, the return of her husband for a
day, (Eccleston's role in this movie is only slightly shorter than his turn as The Doctor), and then he disappeared, did nothing for me. It wasn’t a great goodbye
moment for me, and served no real reason. In fact, Grace seemed to get over his
second disappearance rather quickly. The only thing I can point to, and I’ll
choose to believe this so it makes sense, is that the house and surrounding fog
manifested her husband to keep her on the property. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
explain why she got over his leaving again so quickly.
The movie does a good job at the end explaining how the
living “haunted” the ghosts, and how the juxtaposition of the two roles could
be executed and leave no clues behind.
In the end, it is a simple ghost story about a haunted
house. There isn’t really anything new in the story-telling or movie plot until
the last five minutes. And even then, it seems the movie should end with "Shake Senora,” as the ghosts come to terms with their fate and
learn that haunting can be fun!
Shamalyanian plot twists come in two varieties (to me at least): the "holy crap, what just happened? That was amazing" and the "WTF just happened and can I get a refund. I feel like The Others falls into the first category. I loved it when it came out, and knowing the ending didn't diminish that for me. I like the idea that the dead here don't know they are dead and are in essence being haunted by the living.
ReplyDeleteI think her husband's return serves to keep her in the house, but also to add one more layer of "something is obviously not right here" to the story. I think that is the same reason she doesn't really react to his leaving. The mental fog that keeps her from remembering what she has done also keeps her from dwelling on her husband's sudden departure. If she'd thought about it too hard, her carefully constructed delusion would crumble.
Chad, I had not seen The Others either. I agree it had some interesting moments as a ghost story. I liked that you included the strange appearance of the "walking dead" husband! I did not comment on his return for the night of ghostly passion in my review because I could not explain the significance of his arrival-departure. The movie certainly left some issues as a mystery!
ReplyDeleteI really need to study more on POV and how to view to analyze. Scott mentioned he chose the movie because or its unique POV. I dint know what he meant by that, until BAM, you threw it in my face!! :)
ReplyDeleteSo the POV, now I feel STUPID, is from the ghosts, DUH!! Why didn't i get that. Sheesh. I guess we learn things every day.
I thought the film was OK. I might be giving it a little bump because I've always had a secret crush on Kidman. Not sure what that is, maybe its the blue-eyed, skinny, sexy milky skin I'm attracted to, and I do love her British accent!
Like the others replies, I gave, I'll ask when you figured out everyone was dead and they were the ghosts? I didn't catch on until she woke up and her husband was gone. Call me slow I guess.
Don't feel bad. I didn't know for sure until the end. I focused too much on the housekeepers.
DeleteChris Daniels
ReplyDeleteChad, solid review, and a lot of your points matched my own. I as well likened this to Shamalynian twist endings. Although, arguably, I enjoy Shamalyan. And most (most) of his movies. But this entire movie felt contrived. I saw it a long time ago and forget everything except the ending. And I felt the point was to shock the audience. I did enjoy the twist that this story was from the ghosts' perspective, but it ultimately was a failed experiment. Mainly because they didn't do enough emotionally with the story to make a lasting impact. Not like The Sixth Sense, which still sticks with me to this day. The servants has presumably no reason to be there besides to pave a way toward the twist ending. There should be a reason to not tell Grace about her death, but there is none. No consequence for her finding out. It's not like she had to find out on her own to move on. What happened when she found out? Exactly. Nothing. Lol. I'm not crapping on the movie, I enjoyed it. It just was terribly cliched. But Kidman's performance was great. I as well wasn't too pleased with the husband's role. Seemed almost pointless, as, if you take him out of the equation, the movie would have not lost anything. And that, to me, indicates a pointless plot line.
Chad, I agree that The Others was pretty much the more serious, "artier" version of Bettlejuice. Day-Oh!
ReplyDeleteI concur with your assessment that the film reminds me of "Turn of the Screw." The sole difference being perhaps that the reader was never given an official disclosure in the book whereas the film certainly did so.
ReplyDeleteI also am with you on the return of the husband. Although perhaps the best acting in the film, I asked myself the same question: what does this do to enhance or move the plot along?
Not much. Not much...
I'd like to point out... Knew instead of new and "diseased" instead of "deceased?"
ReplyDeleteAppreciate it. Late night posts never end well... Especially when spellcheck is such a traitorous fiend.
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