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Bookmark this pageThe Others (2001)
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
There are 50 doors in the house. Grace (Kidman) locks each one behind her, and insists the servants do the same. The curtains must be kept closed at all times. Her two children, Anne and Nicholas, are photo-sensitive, Grace explains: allergic to the sun. They live in an isolated Jersey manse, praying for the day Grace's husband will return from WWII, with only the domestic help for company: Lydia (Cassidy) is a mute, Mr Tuttle (Sykes) busies himself around the grounds, while Mrs Mills (Flanagan) seems unimpressed with her new employer's ways. It's to the redoubtable Mrs Mills that Anne turns when her mother refuses to countenance her stories of a mystery interloper, a lodger who makes himself at home without ever showing his face. Reminiscent of Jack Clayton's Henry James adaptation The Innocents, this intelligent chiller relies on atmosphere and suggestion rather than gross-out gore. It's a surprise just how confident and controlled Amenábar's first Hollywood venture turns out to be. Subtle, too. Absence makes the heart beat faster: the absence of light, the corporeal absence of loved ones. Shrewdly cast, Kidman is pitch perfect. It's a clammy, ingenious film, one of the best studio movies of the year.Author: TCh
User reviews of this film
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- Nkoyo said...
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Posted on Aug 10 2009 15:24
This movie gave me such chills that I felt cold for days. I never expected what the end would be and this is the first movie of this kind that I ever saw.
Brilliant!!! Nicole Kidman is such an outstanding actress that sometimes I can feel everything her character feels.
This movie merits a 5-star and a bravo. - Report as inappropriate
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- Magmabulle said...
- Posted on Jun 08 2008 21:45 One of the most frightening movie experiences around, without actually showing anything frightening. Great atmosphere, and very original.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Producer: Fernando Bovaira, José Luis Cuerda, Sunmin Park
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy, Keith Allen, Renée Asherson full cast
Rated: 12
Duration: 104 mins
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