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THE OTHERS Send This Review to a Friend
If you enjoy a good supernatural story involving a haunted Victorian mansion, the living and the dead, "The Others," a work by Spanish writer-director Alejandro Amenabar, should hold you in its grip through the strange events and the clever climax with its final twist. Nicole Kidman, who would have made an excellent leading lady for Alfred Hitchcock, is the star, and it is a pleasure to watch her at work here.
Kidman plays Grace, who lives with her two young children (Alakina Mann and James Bentley) in a strange house on the Isle of Jersey at the end of World War II. Her husband, who became a soldier, has not returned from battle--at least not yet. The servants have mysteriously disappeared, but three eerie new ones (Fionnula Flanagan, Eric Sykes and Elaine Cassidy) turn up ready to work. Grace accepts them, and imperiously tells them how each door must be locked before opening another door and that the drapes must be kept closed at all times because the children are suffering from an aversion-to-light illness that could be life-threatening if the drapes were opened. Grace's daughter insists that she is aware of strangers in the house, and she also is increasingly sure her mother is trying to kill her.
We can surmise that the servants are up to something, especially when they poke around in a hidden graveyard. Amenabar builds the tension carefully and steadily, and Kidman escalates her performance as she becomes more and more upset and determined to keep control of her house, her family and herself. She is as beautiful as ever, and it is so much more appealing to see her in this odd dramatic role than it was to see her in the "Moulin Rouge" mess.
Saying too much would rob you of the assorted surprises as you brace yourself for shocks and wonder who "the others" could possibly be. I'm not usually a sucker for the supernatural but this one is fun. A Dimension Films release.
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