| ||||
By Paul Clinton
CNN Reviewer
(CNN) -- The high-profile marital union between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman is kaput, but the couple had one more joint project to launch before going their separate ways. The new gothic thriller "The Others" is produced by Cruise's company and was written and directed by Chilean-born filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar, making his first English-language film.
Kidman's marriage may be over, but her career is in overdrive. This summer she was stunning in "Moulin Rouge," and in "The Others" she's once again delivered a knockout performance, as a single mother of two living in a remote manor house on the Channel Islands off the coast of Britain during the waning days of World War II.
Kidman presents old-fashioned movie star style a la Barbara Stanwyck -- or, better yet, Loretta Young -- in her role as Grace, an uptight and lonely woman whose soldier husband Charles (Christopher Eccleston) is missing in action and presumed dead. Her servants have recently disappeared into the night, and her son (James Bentley) and daughter (Alakina Mann) have a mysterious affliction that makes them hyper-sensistive to sunlight, so they must live their lives in darkness.
When a trio of new servants appears -- housekeeper Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), handyman Mr. Tuttle (British character actor Eric Sykes), and a strange mute girl Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) -- they're instructed by Grace to never open one door into a room until the other has been shut. No light must ever enter a room with the children.
Appearing and disappearing
Gradually, Grace is pushed to the breaking point by mysterious events beyond her control. Her children, and the servants, are seeing the images of a young boy named Victor, an old woman, and two adults who appear and disappear seemingly at will.
The result is a thriller that hearkens back to the days before special effects took the place of melodrama and stage blood replaced imagination. Funereal trappings of black and gray, gloomy set designs and slow pacing combine to make "The Others" stand out in a season when bigger is better, and the loudest sound effects win the box office sweepstakes.
Chilling landscape
Along with his writing and directing, Amenabar composed an effective musical score. His music underlines the chilling landscape where the action takes place. The acting is excellent across the board, and the supernatural has never looked so good.
This isn't the only Amenabar you'll be seeing this year. His highly successful 1997 Spanish-language movie "Abre Los Ojos" is now being remade in English as "Vanilla Sky." That film, due out around Christmas, stars Cruise and is directed by his "Jerry Maguire" buddy Cameron Crowe. Nobody ever said Hollywood isn't an incestuous town.
But first take a look at "The Others." There is an amazing twist at the end of the film, and it may remind you of another spooky movie of fairly recent vintage, but "The Others" holds its own as a must-see thriller-chiller for these last days of summer.
"The Others" opens nationwide on Friday, August 10, and is rated PG-13.
