Editor's Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on August 1, 2001, and we're proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
When a foreign filmmaker makes his first feature for a U.S. major, the concern among his devotees is always whether he’ll be able to maintain the personal vision that attracted American attention in the first place. There was particular apprehension in the case of The Others, which put the accomplished Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar in the employ of the notoriously meddlesome Miramax/Dimension. But the good news is that The Others doesn’t look to have been compromised in any way; it maintains a consistency of vision throughout, with no kowtowing to the dictates or demands of the mainstream marketplace. (It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Tom Cruise, an executive producer on the movie and a frequent defender of his directors, used his clout to keep the Weinsteins at bay.)
Given this, I would dearly love to report that The Others is an unqualified triumph. Yet it ends up being an easier movie to admire than to fully recommend as a successful fright film. It has any number of sterling individual qualities, chief among them a perfectly evoked mood and an excellent central performance by Nicole Kidman, which command attention throughout. Thus it’s a shame that the central narrative is not as compelling as either.
There’s an irony in the fact that Amenábar’s first U.S.-backed mass-market movie actually seems less commercially oriented than his Spanish films Thesis and Open Your Eyes. Indeed, it almost feels like it should have the Miramax logo at its head than the Dimension tag. The setting is a mansion on a British offshore island at the end of WWII, where Grace (Kidman) a young war widow, is raising two children alone. The house feels like it belongs to a different, bygone era, and part of its Gothic atmosphere derives from the fact that Grace cannot let the sun in whenever the youngsters are around. Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley) are allergic to the light (a wonderful basis for a Gothic horror story), and Grace’s entire lifestyle has been dictated by the necessity of keeping them shielded.
Her personality, too—Grace’s overwhelming concern for Anne and Nicholas has hardened her into a brittle and obsessive woman. A lesser actress might have made her seem either psychopathic or pathetic, but Kidman finds the tragedy and poignance in the character, allowing the audience to sympathize with her. Pretty soon, she has more to worry about: Anne, who shows signs of beginning to rebel against her mother’s strictures, claims to be seeing ghostly figures, and other signs of paranormal visitation start cropping up. Then a trio of itinerant housekeepers arrive on Grace’s doorstep, looking for work and each appearing to be a little off in their own way. In particular, Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan, also terrific) seems attuned to the odd events plaguing the mansion.
More I will not say, as Amenábar continues to tease us as to whether the ghosts are real, and who or what they might be. Yet the longer the movie goes on, the nagging feeling arises that the material might have been better served as a half-hour anthology piece than a full-length feature. The director certainly gets the atmosphere right—Javier Aguirresarobe’s cinematography makes the most of the house’s dark corners and corridors, and Amenábar’s own score accentuates the old-fashioned spooky veneer. All of the supporting actors are good too, including Elaine Cassidy and Eric Sykes as Mrs. Mills’ fellow servants and Christopher Eccleston, about whose role the less said the better.
Yet while the actors and images command attention, the story eventually loses its hold, never building to the heights of tension that even the “quietest” horror films have been able to achieve. The Others may even be too old-fashioned, falling back on totems and ideas that are too familiar to generate the necessary surprise. That goes for the ending too, which is nicely directed but is more intellectually satisfying than dramatically compelling. I do recommend The Others for the many genuine qualities it possesses, but it must be said that the parts are greater than the whole. And that by proclaiming this modestly scaled chiller to be “The Year’s Most Terrifying Thriller!”, Dimension has managed to do it at least one disservice.
