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Abre los ojos, his second movie that explored dreams and reality in the vein of Total Recall and Passion of Mind, was too flawed to be totally satisfying. The Others, on the other hand, avoids most of the previous mistakes to offer Amenábar best work to date. The film is set on Jersey Island, on the eve of the end of the second world war. Grace (Nicole Kidman), raises her two children by herself in a big mansion, teaching them religion, and protecting them from the external light. The kids suffer from an allergy that does not allow them to be exposed to daylight. As a result, all the shutters and doors are closed. But after she hires three servants, strange phenomena start. Amenábar wrote a script that recalls The Sixth Sense. Fortunately Amenábar avoids the confusion of his first two pictures and creates solid suspense with a strong twist ending. The Others succeeds in the horror genre by being really scary as the director develops a fear of the unknown and madness. The strength of the film is to never go for violence or gore. Instead, he builds the fear in the imagination of the audience. Each closed door (and they all are in this house) masks what each one is afraid to find. The story and final twist are familiar, in the light of the recent trend in moviemaking: once again in The Others, the worlds of the living and the dead cross each other. The twist could easily be predicted, making The Others an answer to the Sixth Sense. With such an ending, flaws and inconsistencies come to light while a lack of originality can be criticized. We have already had a lot of haunted houses, ghosts and phantoms. More than twenty years ago, The Shining was already terrifying us with the unknown, making it very hard for the audience to push the door from room n. 237. Admittedly, The Others isn't very innovative and Amenábar does not probably have the ambition to innovate in any case. He does however have perfect control of cinematic language, hence annihilating any hesitation we could have about plot holes and lack of character development, thanks to great direction, beautiful cinematography and gorgeous settings. The story is poor and most of the time stagnates — but the audience is scared, and that's the premise of such a film. Nicole Kidman, looking like she's straight out of Hitchcock film, gives one of her best performances. Strong, courageous, frightened in love or lost, she is brilliant. She appears in most of the shots and really supports the whole film. Young Alika Mann also does an excellent job. As a side note, Amenábar composes the music of his films and his orchestrations prove efficient. It is remarkable that Amenábar has the freedom and time enough to score his movie. The last time we could hear such a sophisticated score was maybe in John Ottman's Urban Legend 2, a film we'd best forget. The Others proves that Amenábar can successfully direct, write and compose. With these skills and strong box office receipts, he undoubtedly made his mark in Hollywood.
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