A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Others

Date Viewed: 8/26/01

Details:

Nicole Kidman

Alakina Mann

James Bentley

Fionnula Flanagan

Eric Sykes

Written and directed by: Alejandro Amenabar

Score: +

The Review: Occasionally spooky, always atmospheric, marginally convincing. Period piece near the end of WW-II on one of the off-shore British islands of Jersey. A mother (Kidman) and her two children wait the return of her husband in a rambling crumbling estate house, and begin to think that someone else is in the house. The caretaker and the cook appear, as if in response to the advert, to help out. Kidman is quite intense and determinedly protective in trying to decipher what is happening on the estate.

Has all the aspects of a classic ghost story, with some curious differences. Small cast (as if originally designed for the stage), and the ensemble work is quite good, but something about it just didn't click.

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