Film Review: Sixth Sense

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The film ‘The Sixth Sense’ deals with the lack of communication between families. The disappearance of communication between mother and son; husband and wife; and the dead and the living all add to our fundamental understanding of the twist in the film.

The plot of the film has been well crafted by its director/ writer (M. Night Shamalyan) to make us believe the illusion that Malcolm Crowe, a child psychiatric doctor, is alive especially on our first viewing of the film. As first time viewer, lots of cleverness has been used to make us believe that we are watching a movie about a child psychiatric who is helping his new patient (the character of Cole) deal with his troubles. Whereas, in reality, we are watching a film about a troubled ghost who doesn’t know that he is dead and the lack of communication in families which we realise on our second viewing of the film.

The plot of the film starts after Vincent Gray breaks into the house of Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) and his wife Anna the night Malcolm receives an award for his psychological achievements. Crowe was once Vincent’s agent when he was appointed to help him deal with his problem but we learn that Crowe failed Vincent as he hasn’t been able to deal with the problem. Now, Vincent whose life has been shattered because of his unwanted problems takes revenge on Malcolm by shooting him before he shoots himself.

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In the next scene, we were expecting to see a scene in the hospital or in a cemetery to confirm Malcolm’s death. Instead of this, we are shown the next fall and Malcolm like any other person getting on with his life. This is the first step of the film’s plot as it fools us into changing our mind and we think that Malcolm survived the shooting.  He is shown with notes on his lap about his new patient Cole.  

Cole Sear is the character of a boy with a sixth sense- a paranormal contact with the ...

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