The Others Review

Watching this film after a good number of years, I understand what makes this tick and what makes this more than just a ghost flick. Sure, it has its thrills and chills. Kidman portrays perhaps the ultimate worrying and doting mother. The greatest appeal to this is perhaps Grace’s (Kidman) ordeal: raising two children without help. To add to this her headstrong daughter who in a number of ways is a clone of herself. 

This didn’t seem like an atypical ghost flick. The veil was slowly fading and holes formed in certain spots. I found the gradual thinning of the veil well plotted. Though creepy, there was a certain beating heart to it. There was also a balance between plot and character.

          

 Grace wasn’t flexible in her beliefs, and in a way, she used her faith as a crutch and an amnesia agent. Perhaps her in inflexibility allowed for her to forget she was dead and earthbound. This puts her at odds with her daughter Anne, to use the pun, a free spirit. Grace’s own perception of her strength turned out to be her own weakness. What happens when an unbreakable shield meets a spear that pierces everything? She contradicts herself and when Anne mentions it, Grace hates it.

          

 The dynamic between Nicolas and Anne is typical of sibling relationships, which isn’t detrimental to the story at all. The fact Anne noticed these things at let her curiosity guide her is something worth noting. She was perhaps one of three people who could get through to Grace. The other being Nicolas. However, Nicolas’ timidity restrained him to his mother’s hip. The other was her husband, who through the events of the war, became lost after his death and repeated his meeting and departure.

            

 I couldn’t help but notice a possible reference to Shakespeare: the weather. This was a dead giveaway. When the weather is severe, something is amiss. The fog acts as a signifier and a barrier.

           

The most effective aspect of this film was the focus on the tragic instead of the violent. Violent death, particularly murder-suicide, leave marks. However, sometimes revealing that information has more impact that displaying it. “Is that how she killed you?” Just the reaction alone by Grace and the children was more than enough ‘violence’ for the film.

           

Psychological trauma is often more than enough to help bring the plot of this film to light. Mrs. Mills said it best, “we don’t always have all the answers”. Granted Grace knew enough to live her life and care for her children, but she failed to see beyond that little world of hers, hence why she disregarded the living and her own actions.

           
If there would be one thing I would criticize was the revealing of the gravestones and not so much the book of the dead. The gravestone image seemed cliché in some sense. Though, it is not unheard of for family members to be interred on private property instead of a cemetery. However, the practice is likely illegal in this century